It can be difficult getting conventional tools into narrow or fragile spaces, but tiny, shape-shifting robots could liquefy and flow to where they are needed
They made the millimetre-sized robot from a mix of the liquid metal gallium and microscopic pieces of a magnetic material made of neodymium, iron and boron. When solid, the material was strong enough to support an object 30 times its own mass. To make it soften, stretch, move or melt into a crawling puddle as needed for different tasks, the researchers
. The magnets’ customised magnetic fields exerted forces on the tiny magnetic pieces in the robot, moving them and deforming the surrounding metal in different directions.For instance, the team stretched a robot by applying a magnetic field that pulled these granules in multiple directions. The researchers also used a stronger field to yank the particles upwards, making the robot jump.
Exploiting this flexibility, the team made two robots carry and solder a small light bulb onto a circuit board. When they reached their target, the robots simply melted over the light bulb’s edges to fuse it to the board. Electricity could then run through their liquid metal bodies and light the light bulb.
In an experiment inside an artificial stomach, the researchers applied another set of magnetic fields to make the robot approach an object, melt over it and drag it out. Finally, they shaped the robot like a Lego minifigure, then helped it escape from a cage by liquefying it and making it flow out between the bars. Once the robot puddle dribbled into a mould, it set back into its original, solid shape.
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