This real life 'Terminator' robot can liquify and solidify on command

Terminator returns, but not quite how you think. Scientists have made a tiny "Terminator 2"-like robot that can melt and re-solidify itself on command. This helps it to easily escape from closed spaces. Scientists believe it has great potential to solve multiple problems.To make the robot, microscopic chunks of magnetic neodymium, boron and iron were embedded into liquid gallium (a metal with a low melting point) and left to solidify.

The robot is extremely similar to the T-1000 from "Terminator 2" in the sense that it has shape-shifting abilities.

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"Giving robots the ability to switch between liquid and solid states endows them with more functionality," lead author Chengfeng Pan, an engineer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in the statement.

Scientists used magnets to command the tiny robot to melt, and recorded the robot transforming into an amorphous puddle that then slithers through the bars of a cage and then reconstitutes itself on the other side.

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The findings were published on January 25 in the journal Matter.

Scientists said that sea cucumbers served as inspiration for the robot. The creatures are known to switch between soft and stiff states to protect themselves from their environment and increase the weight they can carry.

For the experiment, the bot was heated through a process known as magnetic induction. A moving magnet was used to set up an electrical current inside the robot. The current melted the gallium, and the magnetic elements inside it attracted it towards the magnet.

"The magnetic particles here have two roles," senior author Carmel Majidi, a mechanical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University, said.

"One 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. But the magnetic particles also give the robots mobility and the ability to move in response to the magnetic field."

The researchers have already used it to solve various problems, such as, for fixing circuits by making it enter tough-to-reach spots and then transforming into solder.

They believe it has tremendous potential for medical and technological applications.

"Now, we're pushing this material system in more practical ways to solve some very specific medical and engineering problems,"Chengfeng said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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