Multichamber magnetic capsule robot for selective liquid sampling and drug delivery

Abstract Ingestible capsule robots provide a minimally invasive approach to diagnosing and treating gastrointestinal diseases. However, current capsule robots cannot realize both diagnosis and treatment because of the conflict between manufacturing simplicity and functional enhancement. Here, we present a multichamber magnetic capsule robot (macabot) to achieve selective liquid sampling and drug delivery via one-time oral intake. The engineered multichamber macabot realizes selective opening of four individual chambers in specified directions triggered by a gradient magnetic field. Such functions are decoupled from its rolling locomotion driven by a rotating magnetic field. The multichamber macabot can be split into single-chamber modules to navigate narrow intestine tracts with higher pH values. The experimental results demonstrate the capabilities of the macabot for targeted delivery, sealing, active navigation, liquid sampling, and release operations. Successful validation was achieved for both in situ generation of shape-adaptive hydrogel patch for targeted local deployment, and ex vivo liquid sampling and release under ultrasound imaging guidance.