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When you think of robotic surgery, you might think of remotely controlled robotic arms whirring over a patient, or tiny endoscopic cameras that help surgeons navigate with precise instruments.
You probably don't think of a magnetically controlled slime robot slithering through your gastrointestinal tract and swallowing objects, like some kind of sci-fi ooze.
But that's the exact idea behind the Reconfigurable Magnetic Slime Robot -- a stretchy, sluglike robot that can squeeze through tight spaces, wrap around objects and even "self heal" after it's been cut in two.
Created by a team of researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Slime Robot is a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning it can behave both as a solid and a liquid. This slime is made from a mixture of PVA and borax, but you can also make your own non-Newtonian fluid at home using cornstarch and water.
According to Li Zhang, a professor from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at CUHK and one of the leads on the project, if you touch a non-Newtonian fluid at high speed, it behaves as a solid state object, but if you touch it gently and slowly, it behaves like a liquid. That behavior allows the robot to be stretchy enough to move around, but solid enough to wrap around objects like wires or ball bearings.
www.cnet.com
You probably don't think of a magnetically controlled slime robot slithering through your gastrointestinal tract and swallowing objects, like some kind of sci-fi ooze.
But that's the exact idea behind the Reconfigurable Magnetic Slime Robot -- a stretchy, sluglike robot that can squeeze through tight spaces, wrap around objects and even "self heal" after it's been cut in two.
Created by a team of researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Slime Robot is a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning it can behave both as a solid and a liquid. This slime is made from a mixture of PVA and borax, but you can also make your own non-Newtonian fluid at home using cornstarch and water.
According to Li Zhang, a professor from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at CUHK and one of the leads on the project, if you touch a non-Newtonian fluid at high speed, it behaves as a solid state object, but if you touch it gently and slowly, it behaves like a liquid. That behavior allows the robot to be stretchy enough to move around, but solid enough to wrap around objects like wires or ball bearings.
Your Next Surgeon Could Be a Slime Robot
Like an octopus, it wraps around objects. It can also swallow things inside your stomach and even "self heal." This ooze could be the future of surgery.
www.cnet.com
