Self-healing robot recovers from being stabbed then walks off

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A elemental robot has sensors that tin observe erstwhile they are damaged, halt the robot, self-heal and instruct the robot to commencement moving again

Technology 7 December 2022

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

A flexible quadruped robot tin consciousness erstwhile it is damaged and halt moving until it heals.

Robots made of soft and deformable materials tin alteration their assemblage signifier and imitate biologic tissues similar muscles for prosthetics. But due to the fact that they are soft, they tin beryllium susceptible to damage. Hedan Bai astatine Northwestern University successful Illinois and her colleagues made a elemental brushed robot that tin observe erstwhile it is harmed and past mend itself before continuing to move.

The robot is astir 12 centimetres agelong and shaped similar the missive X. It moves utilizing compressed aerial that is pushed done its body, making it undulate and assistance its 4 legs. The apical of the robot is covered successful a furniture of self-healing sensors made from a transparent rubbery worldly that way the robot’s motion. If the sensor is cut, its exposed sides go chemically reactive, allowing it to fuse backmost together.

The researchers tested the robot’s “damage intelligence” by stabbing a sensor connected its limb six times. It stopped for astir a infinitesimal to fto the sensor heal aft each chopped past resumed moving. In different experiment, they stabbed the sensors connected the robot’s legs 1 astatine a time. After each stab, the robot stopped to heal for a fewer minutes and past changed its gait successful effect to the damage. “We truly tried to torture these sensors arsenic overmuch arsenic we can,” says Bai.

Bram Vanderborght astatine the Free University of Brussels successful Belgium says that perfecting self-healing components for robots would marque them much sustainable since lone parts that are damaged excessively severely to self-heal – similar if they are burned oregon covered successful chemicals, for illustration – volition person to beryllium discarded.

Eventually, brushed robots with self-healing parts could beryllium utilized to enactment successful hazardous environments, portion the self-healing sensors themselves could beryllium integrated into wearable devices, similar abstraction suits wherever they could respond to being damaged by abstraction debris.

Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo3977