An ‘origami robot’ that can be swallowed in a pill and then sent on missions inside the body promises a revolution in internal treatment of the digestive system, scientists have claimed.

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sheffield University, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology trialed the fold-up device in a mock stomach and found it was able to dislodge and remove foreign objects such as batteries.

The researchers also believe the robot can be modified to deliver drugs and also perform targeted surgery in otherwise inaccessible regions of stomach and gut.