Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
From DARPA-developed implants that would give a built-in head’s-up display (HUD) to a new liquid-based 3D printing process, the Terminator movie series has inspired several innovations in recent months, with the latest being new liquid-metal machines that move by “eating.”
Unlike most robots, which use batteries as their power source, Engadget explains that these new robots can move by consuming substances such as aluminum and producing an electrochemical reaction. It is not possible to control their movements directly, the website noted, but since they mimic the space they’re in they can be forced through tunnels or channels.
Currently, the machines aren’t capable of setting any new land-speed records. Consuming metal allows them to move at a rate of approximately two inches per second for a period of more than an hour. However, they serve as proof-of-concept of a Terminator 2-style liquid robot.
According to the Xinhua news agency, the robots were developed by a team of experts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry and the Tsinghua University medical school, who published their findings in the journal Advanced Materials.
The authors describe their creation as a “self-fueled biomimetic liquid metal mollusk,” writing that it is “highly self-adaptive and closely conforms to the geometrical space it is in,” the news agency added. The power of the liquid metal motor comes from the endogenous electric field of liquid alloys and metal ‘food,’ as well as hydrogen generated by electrochemical reactions.
The liquid metal mollusks can move in alkalescent, acidic or neutral electrolytes, Xinhua added, and the study authors wrote that such transformations and movements “could provide on-demand use given specific designs.” It is the first step towards advanced, shape-shifting, flexible robots.
“The soft machine looks rather intelligent and [can] deform itself according to the space it voyages in, just like [the] Terminator does from the science-fiction film,” study author Jing Liu from Tsinghua University told NewScientist . “These unusual behaviors perfectly resemble the living organisms in nature,” and raise questions about the nature of life, he added.
The mollusk-type machine are “surprisingly simple,” the website explained. It is a metal alloy droplet made up primarily of gallium (which is a liquid at temperatures of around 86 degrees Fahrenheit / 30 degrees Celsius) with some indium and tin added to the mixture. When placed in a solution of brine or sodium hydroxide and kept in contact with aluminum, it consumes the fuel and can move in a straight line, travel along a perimeter or squeeze through complex shapes.
At first, Liu and his colleagues were uncertain how it was able to move, but further analysis revealed that there were two mechanisms at work. A portion of the energy results from a charge imbalance across the drop, NewScientist explained, thus creating a pressure differential between the front and the back that propels it forward. The interaction between the aluminium and the sodium hydroxide released hydrogen bubbles, causing the drop to travel even faster.
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