Scientists develop phase-changing robot material

Scientists have developed a new material that could give future robots shape-shifting capabilities akin to the T-1000 robot in Terminator 2: Put that in your cigar and chew on it for a while, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Scientists develop phase-changing robot material 1405387307391

Scientists develop phase-changing robot material 1405387307391

The 3D-printed, phase-changing material is actually a combination of polyurethane foam and wax. The developers — Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Anette Hosoi, her former graduate student Nadia Cheng, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and Stony Brook University — figured out how to saturate the foam in wax and then heat and cool specific parts to transform them from rigid to soft and pliable and then back to rigid and hard again.

The applications are fairly obvious. A robot made of such material could soften up when it needs to move into a small space, but then regain its original shape and rigidity when it needs to, say move or lift an object.

For their research, Hosoi and Cheng were trying to build a snake-like robot that could squeeze through a one-centimeter hole, emerge on the other side and still be able to move around. MIT researchers liken this capability to the way mice can squeeze though pencil-sized holes, but still come out looking and functioning like mice on the other side.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/scientists-develop-phasechanging-robot-material-20140715-zt7o8.html

Scientists develop phase-changing robot material

Scientists develop phase-changing robot material

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