Professor Carmel Majidi<\/a>, a mechanical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University, in Canada said: \u201cThe magnetic particles here have two roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cOne is that they make the material responsive to an alternating magnetic field, so you can, through induction, heat up the material and cause the phase change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut the magnetic particles also give the robots mobility and the ability to move in response to the magnetic field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that the process is in contrast to existing phase-shifting materials that rely on heat guns, electrical currents, or other external heat sources to induce solid-to-liquid transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prof Majidi says the new material also boasts an \u201cextremely fluid\u201d liquid phase compared to other phase-changing materials, whose \u201cliquid\u201d phases are considerably more viscous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before exploring potential applications, the team tested the material\u2019s mobility and strength in a variety of scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the aid of a magnetic field, the robots jumped over moats, climbed walls, and even split in half to cooperatively move other objects around before coalescing back together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one video, a robot shaped like a person liquefies to ooze through a grid after which it is extracted and remolded back into its original shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Pan said: \u201cNow, we\u2019re pushing this material system in more practical ways to solve some very specific medical and engineering problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team also used the robots to remove a foreign object from a model stomach and to deliver drugs on-demand into the same stomach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also demonstrated how the material could work as smart soldering robots for wireless circuit assembly and repair and as a universal mechanical \u201cscrew\u201d for assembling parts in hard-to-reach spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prof Majidi added: \u201cFuture work should further explore how these robots could be used within a biomedical context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re showing are just one-off demonstrations, proofs of concept, but much more study will be required to delve into how this could actually be used for drug delivery or for removing foreign objects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: Published without changes from Zenger News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Stephen Beech A Terminator-style shape-shifting robot able to LIQUEFY and reform has been developed by engineers inspired<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3875,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions\/3875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}