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  • Perspective
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Towards multifunctional robotic pills

Nature Biomedical Engineering (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Robotic pills leverage the advantages of oral pharmaceutical formulations—in particular, convenient encapsulation, high loading capacity, ease of manufacturing and high patient compliance—as well as the multifunctionality, increasing miniaturization and sophistication of microrobotic systems. In this Perspective, we provide an overview of major innovations in the development of robotic pills—specifically, oral pills embedded with robotic capabilities based on microneedles, microinjectors, microstirrers or microrockets—summarize current progress and applicational gaps of the technology, and discuss its prospects. We argue that the integration of multiple microrobotic functions within oral delivery systems alongside accurate control of the release characteristics of their payload provides a basis for realizing sophisticated multifunctional robotic pills that operate as closed-loop systems.

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Fig. 1: Microrobotic systems can be incorporated into pharmaceutical pills.
Fig. 2: Pill-embedded microrobots for active drug delivery.
Fig. 3: Pill-embedded synthetic microrobots for enhanced drug penetration and bioavailability.
Fig. 4: Devices for oral delivery with extended gastric retention.
Fig. 5: Prospects of the integration of microrobots into oral pills.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, under award number R21AI159492, and by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Joint Science and Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense, under award number HDTRA1‐21‐1‐0010.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Rodolfo Mundaca-Uribe, Nelly Askarinam, Ronnie H. Fang.

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  1. Department of Nanoengineering and Chemical Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Rodolfo Mundaca-Uribe, Nelly Askarinam, Ronnie H. Fang, Liangfang Zhang & Joseph Wang

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Mundaca-Uribe, R., Askarinam, N., Fang, R.H. et al. Towards multifunctional robotic pills. Nat. Biomed. Eng (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-023-01090-6

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