Revolutionizing Gastrointestinal Diagnosis and Treatment with Endiatx PillBot: A Game-Changer in Medical Technology

2024-02-13 17:46:00

When we have gastric ulcers or gastrointestinal discomfort, we usually need to go to the store for consultation, queue up for blood drawing and ultrasound, and after discovering the problem, we have to go through a gastroscopy before we can be diagnosed and receive medical treatment. Usually, if we are diagnosed with gastric cancer at this stage, it is a little too late… Therefore Endiatx, a new start-up company in the United States, has been investing in the development of a pill-sized robot since five years ago. It is used to replace the endoscope machine and can even directly determine the entry into the surgical process. This product also won the Edison Award.

“Every 39 seconds, a patient dies from gastric cancer and other related diseases.”

Endiatx PillBot can be said to be the world’s first publicly released capsule robot. It looks slightly larger than ordinary pills. It has a lens, LED light set, laser light, data conversion module, battery pack and special drive motor at the front. It is transparent. The system platform developed by Endiatx and the wireless controller of Microsoft Xbox further allow PillBot to actively check the entire gastrointestinal status in 30 minutes in the form of real-time video.

“The key is how small it is so that the patient can swallow it smoothly and can clearly identify the affected area.”

For the development team, the biggest challenge is to effectively enable the product to achieve the same resolution as a gastroscope and achieve medical-level effects in such a small space. At the earlier 3DEXPERIENCE WORKS 2024 event, Endiatx product development engineer Thomas Silva specifically explained some of the problems in developing this product, including how to put some complex precision parts into a capsule-sized space and be able to withstand the human intestines corrosive, and able to meet the precise measurement requirements of medical institutions. In the end, they solved all problems through SOLLIDWORKS.

Thomas Silva pointed out that the currently launched Endiatx PillBot is the world’s first minimally invasive robot developed for the gastrointestinal tract. This product has entered the in vivo experimental stage. The ultimate goal is to achieve the results of remote medical treatment and allow people who are inconvenient to go out. Patients can use PillBot at home to allow surgeons to remotely collect specimens from patients in the hospital and even perform minimally invasive surgeries. In the next step, Endiatx PillBot will be iteratively updated and upgraded. It is hoped that in the future, it can collect samples from affected parts of the body and use it with an oscilloscope to detect pancreatic cancer and other related diseases early.