A shape-shifting robot that is able to liquify itself and then reform has been unveiled.
Researchers from America's Carnegie Mellon University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong released a video of the small humanoid robot trapped in a cage.
It then melts into a pool to flow through the solid metal bars before reforming on the other side and resuming its humanoid shape.
The robot’s design was initially inspired by sea cucumbers, but the footage brings to mind the shape-shifting T1000 killer robot from the movie ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’.
As well as releasing the video, the team detailed the robot and its capabilities in the scientific journal ‘Matter’.
The researchers created a new material, which they called a ‘magnetoactive solid-liquid phase transitional machine’ to be able to switch between states.
Regular hard robots tend to be rigid and inflexible, while soft robots are weaker and their movements more difficult to control.
Study leader Chengfeng Pan said that allowing a device to switch between solid and liquid states gave it more functionality.
Robot uses magnetic particles in metal with a low melting point
The design incorporates magnetic particles embedded in a metal known as gallium, which has an extremely low melting point.
The magnetic particles allow the material to be heated using an alternating magnetic field until it reaches its melting point and undergoes phase change.
They also provide mobility and the ability to move the robot by applying the magnetic field.
It is a different approach to other phase-shifting materials, which tend to use external heat sources such as heat guns or electrical currents to induce their change.
The new material is also more fluid than other alternatives, which are more viscous when in their liquified state.
As well as making its jailbreak through the metal bars, the robot was able to jump over a small moat, climb a wall, and split in half to move other robots around before reforming.
The team also demonstrated the team how the robot could be used to remove a foreign object from an artificial stomach and deliver medicines into the same model.
Study senior author Carmel Majid said that the various demonstrations were proofs of concept but added that further work would explore how the robot could be used in practical biomedical and engineering applications.
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