Imagine ordering takeout drone delivery and then eating the delivery drone for dessert after you eat the food. The first part had been going on for some time; the second – an edible robot – could be coming soon, according to scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).
“Bringing robots and food together is a fascinating challenge,” said Dario Floreano, director of EPFL’s Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LIS) and lead author of a recently published perspective paper looking at how far we are from the reality of edible robots. “We’re still figuring out which edible materials work similarly to non-edible ones.”
At first glance, food and robots seem to be at opposite ends of the scientific spectrum. But according to the authors of the article, edible robots are not just a novelty for which you would pay ridiculous money to see on a plate in a high-end restaurant. They have a wide range of potential applications in areas such as human health and nutrition, wildlife conservation and animal welfare, and the environment.
There is so much potential in edible robots that Floreano teamed up with Remek Boom of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Jonathan Rossiter of the University of Bristol in the UK, and Mario Caironi of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) to launch RoboFood in 2021. The project received support in the form of EU funding of €3.5 million (US$3.75 million) over four years.
Floreano et al.
According to the RoboFood website, the “overarching goal of the project” is to “lay the scientific and technological foundations for the development of truly edible robots and robotic food.” To that end, let’s take a look at the timeline of the development of edible robots, which, like most things related to technology, are moving at a rapid pace.
In 2017, EPFL scientists created a tentacle capable of manipulating an apple made of two fully edible actuators. The actuators themselves were made from a gelatin-glycerol material with mechanical properties similar to those found in silicone elastomers.
In 2022, scientists from EPFL and Wageningen constructed a fixed-wing drone with wings made of puffed rice cakes glued together with gelatin. Granted, only the drone’s wings were edible, but it flew at 33 feet (10 m) per second and could carry 50% of its own mass as an edible payload.
In 2023, IIT researchers created an edible rechargeable battery by making the anode from riboflavin (vitamin B2) and the cathode from quercetin, a health-promoting natural pigment found in red onions, capers and cabbage. Activated charcoal increased conductivity, while nori seaweed—the stuff you usually wrap around your sushi rolls—was used to prevent short circuits. The battery is wrapped with beeswax and operates at 0.65 volts, which is still a safe voltage for ingestion; two connected in series powered the LED for about 10 minutes.
In 2024, scientists from the University of Briston, IIT and EPFL created the first edible voltage sensor based on electronic conduction. The key is a new conductive ink, a combination of activated carbon, Haribo gummy bears and a mixture of water and ethanol. When the ink is sprayed onto an edible substrate, both can be eaten.
Floreano et al.
“There is a lot of research on individual edible components such as controllers, sensors and batteries,” said Bokeon Kwak, a member of the RoboFood team and one of the co-authors of the perspective paper. “But the biggest technical challenge is to bring together parts that use electricity to function, such as batteries and sensors, with those that use fluids and pressure to move, such as actuators.”
In their article, the researchers outlined the challenges currently facing the realization of edible robots. Existing edible actuators and batteries still have lower performance, durability and reliability compared to their non-edible counterparts or require the use of non-edible parts. Another challenge is that although many edible ingredients are made from things we commonly eat, more studies are needed to determine how they interact with the digestive system. And then there’s miniaturization, which makes robots small enough to be a single, swallowable entity. Finally, edible robots have to serve a purpose after all.
So what purposes do scientists hypothesize? Examples they cite in their work include analyzing the digestive tract and precise drug administration, maneuvering the esophagus to clear food blockages, providing nutrition to humans and animals, protecting the health of wild and domesticated animals—including administering vaccines, monitoring the environment, and, of course, providing novel culinary experience. Since edible robots would also be biodegradable, they are greener than the alternative.
An important question begs to be answered: How will people react to being eaten by a robot? A 2024 study provided some answers, where researchers gave participants robots made of sugar and gelatin—one movable, one not—and measured their perception and taste experiences. They found that the moving robot was perceived as “creature” while the stationary one was “food”. However, movement added more flair.
The moving robot was often described as “sweet” and participants mentioned specific flavors such as “apple” compared to the non-moving robot, which was referred to by its basic components, indicating that participants trusted the moving and non-moving robots. were made of different materials. Additionally, when chewing on the moving robot, participants described noticeably different textures than when the robot was not moving. One possible explanation offered by the researchers is that participants attributed lifelike qualities to the robot as it moved; it was more ‘alive’.
The authors of the current article did not speculate about when we might see edible robots on our plates. While the aforementioned technical hurdles still need to be overcome, given the breakneck speed at which technology is moving forward, we probably won’t have to wait long.
The article was published in the magazine Materials from nature reviews.
Source: EPFL