These soft robot fingers are also edible

Why make robots edible? Well, it’s not to give humanity an advantage during future robot

uprisings. Instead, researchers from Swiss research institute EPFL imagine digestible bots being put to a number of uses — from exploring our bodies (before being disposed of by our guts) to “food transportation where the robot does not require additional payload because the robot is the food.” (Our emphasis.) These ideas and more were outlined in a recent paper titled “Soft Pneumatic Gelatin Actuator for Edible Robotics” and first reported on by IEEE Spectrum. The “soft pneumatic gelatin actuators” in question are the squishy-looking fingers you can see above and below. Soft robots like this aren’t new (supermarkets use them for handling fruit without bruising, for example), but rather than being made from plastic, these actuators are made from a combination of gelatin, glycerin, and water. That means they’re both edible and biodegradable.                                                                        https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/8/16435314/edible-robot-fingers-technology-food