Vibrating pill, ingestible sensor: mini robots tackle gut disorders

A pill that vibrates to relieve constipation, a sensor that can be tracked in the gut — medical researchers are turning to tiny robots to treat or diagnose gastrointestinal disorders.

“This is a very booming field,” said Saransh Sharma, a doctoral student at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) involved in the development of the ingestible diagnostic sensor.