ArticleNature communications2025
Edible aquatic robots with Marangoni propulsion.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Swimming with robots: investigating fish locomotion, sensing, and schooling behavior with robotic swimmers.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Edible Pneumatic Battery for Sustained and Repeated Robot Actuation.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Ecosystem-Centered Robot Design: Toward Ecoresorbable Sustainability Robots (ESRs).Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Centimeter-scale aquatic robots could be used in environmental monitoring, exploration, and intervention in aquatic environments. However, existing robots rely on artificial polymers and commercial electronic components, which can pollute and disrupt sensitive ecological environments if they are not retrieved. To address these challenges, we describe a fully biodegradable and fully edible self-propelled device that leverages the Marangoni effect for autonomous propulsion. The body of the edible aquatic robot is made of freeze-dried fish food and is powered by a water-triggered pneumatic reaction that produces motion by sustained release of a surfactant that is safe for aquatic fauna. The device's biodegradable and non-toxic composition allows for safe environmental deployment for environmental sensing, delivery of nutrition or medication in aquatic environments. The proposed method substantially expands the potential benefits of small-scale aquatic robots that could be deployed on a large scale without the need to retrieve them and even provide nutrition to wildlife at the end of their lifetime as animals do.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.