Kirigami-Structured Electronic Capsule for Long-Term Continuous Gastric Monitoring
Abstract
Ingestible electronic systems enable non-invasive, in situ sensing within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, yet clinical translation has been limited by uncontrolled transit, short operational lifetimes, and unreliable wireless communication that prevent continuous monitoring. Here, we present a gastric-resident ingestible robotic platform that achieves week-long operation through integration of a bioinspired, electrically triggered release mechanism with a kirigami-enabled electronic architecture. A kirigami-patterned flexible printed circuit board spans the capsule body and deployable superelastic arms, enabling high-density integration of sensing, power management, and wireless modules within a constrained volume while tolerating large mechanical deformation during gastric residence. Stable retention and on-demand disassembly are achieved using thermally responsive polycaprolactone joints that transition from rigid to compliant states under electrical activation, avoiding dependence on variable chemical triggers. Reliable telemetry in the highly attenuating gastric environment is maintained using a dual-band Bluetooth Low Energy and sub-gigahertz module with RSSI- and throughput-aware adaptive transmission, balancing link robustness and energy consumption. We demonstrate long-term, continuous monitoring of gastric radiation exposure, enabling early detection of dose accumulation and providing a promising in vivo alternative to wearable or handheld dosimeters. Swine studies confirm stable gastric residence, sustained real-time telemetry, and safe gastrointestinal passage following triggered disassembly. This work establishes kirigami-enabled integration as a scalable strategy for long-term gastric-resident robotic systems.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2605.06045,
title = {Kirigami-Structured Electronic Capsule for Long-Term Continuous Gastric Monitoring},
author = {Hen-Wei Huang and Claas Ehmke and Dawei Wang and Blake Smith and Ziyao Zhou and Rong Tan and David Werder and Crystan McLymore and Niels Neidlein and Emanuele Falli and Ali Imani and James McRae and Yeseul Jeon and So-Yoon Yang and Wesley S. Culberson and James Byrne and Giovanni Traverso},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.06045},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
This submission is withdrawn because the author/contributor information in the current version was submitted before explicit confirmation had been obtained from all relevant team members. We are withdrawing the article to avoid an inaccurate or unverified authorship/contribution record