He could have thrown a “Hasta la vista, baby.” But the metal robot created by Chinese and American researchers has no voice. Its particularity is being able to liquefy before returning to a solid state. But this one will not seek to kill unlike the T-1000 robot from the movie Terminator 2.
To accomplish this feat (immortalized on video), its creators fabricated it out of gallium. This metal has a very low melting temperature, which allows it to melt from 29.8°C. So it was enough for the scientists to add magnetic particles to the composition to give their robot new capabilities, he explains. science and future.
Upcoming medical applications
Thanks to these particles it is possible to heat the element by induction: which allows it to pass into the liquid state. But they also allow the robot to move under the impulse of a magnetic field. Something to revolutionize microrobotics, which today is faced with models that are either very flexible but too fragile, or resistant but too rigid.
According to the researchers, whose work was published in the journal Matter, this middle ground could lead to medical applications. The change from the solid to the liquid phase would be used to deliver drugs to specific locations in the body. While the reverse state change could capture foreign bodies, before evacuating them. However, everything is suspended from raising the melting point above body temperature, notes Futura Sciences.
Scientists are making progress in a second area of activity: electronics. During their work, they used two models of the robot to move components in an electrical circuit. Once in the right place, the fusion of the devices allowed a weld to be made. This process could also allow screw replacement in hard-to-reach places.
Source: BFM TV
