A new study on robotics developed an approach that could equip soft machines with materials for carrying out functions more conveniently. These systems focus on shape-shifting procedures, allowing the robots to move easily and purposely relay objectives.
The stepping stone of shape-shifting robots was formulated in research led by scholars from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.
Application of Active Matter for Robots
According to the team, the material model created in the study called the 'active matter' could be a successful breakthrough for the futuristic designs of robots. Further examination regarding the concepts of the model is expected to come up for the soft solid material to shift in various forms, displacement, and behaviors through its natural properties and human intervention.
The surface of the material, similar to the choice for the study, tends to shrink in a spherical shape. This phenomenon could also be observed with how the water beads from droplets behave in a surface area. As the water beads, ordinary soft materials are likely to contract into the smallest plane possible, making their physical appearance become a spheroid.
Active matter, on the other hand, can manage this uncontrollable behavior. The potential capacity of active matters can be applied to the nanorobots. For example, an irregular object that tends to shift to a predestined shape could be manipulated through the nanorobots covering its entirety.
Previous studies already took the interest to develop a new generation of robotic machines that are programmed to do a wide variety of functions as they change shapes. In the new paper, the authors utilized smaller units that make up a larger body instead of controlling a pre-made body manipulated by central control.
Instead of building an entire chunk, the team developed a system that functions through a collective unit, similar to the function of fibers that make up the human biological tissues, ScienceDaily reported.
Future of Shape-Shifting Technology
With the concept, a model of a soft machine with flexible materials covering its surface can be constructed in the near future. In addition, these nanosheets could also deliver tiny capsules of treatments inside the human body, effectively targeting the right locations from administration to application of the drugs.
The studies revolving around active matter pose a challenge to the surface of soft solid and liquid materials, requiring the plane's energetic cost be positive.
University of Bath Department of Physics expert and lead author of the study Jack Binysh explained that active matter gives us a glimpse of nature's rules, in which surface tension is positive, with a new approach.
By breaking these rules, we will have further data on how future robotics will advance front heir current functionalities and designs, he continued. Institute fellow and co-author Anton Souslov added that their recent findings are essential poof of the concept, and how it could benefit from providing contributing utilization of the machines.
The study was published in the journal Science Advances, titled "Active elastocapillarity in soft solids with negative surface tension."
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