Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed a robot, albeit a very small one, that can alter its shape by melting and reforming. That’s because it’s made of magnetoactive phase transitional matter (MPTM), which when exposed to magnetic fields can alternate between a liquid and solid state. They developed this by embedding magnetic particles in gallium metal, which melts at a cool 86 degrees.
How does this shape-shifting robot escape jail?
Answer: By melting and reforming.
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If we’re afraid that they might one day take over the world, wouldn’t teaching robots how to escape from jail not be the wisest decision? Too late, someone already did it.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed a robot, albeit a very small one, that can alter its shape by melting and reforming. That’s because it’s made of magnetoactive phase transitional matter (MPTM), which when exposed to magnetic fields can alternate between a liquid and solid state. They developed this by embedding magnetic particles in gallium metal, which melts at a cool 86 degrees.
The team put together a video showing all the useful (or not, depending on how you look at it) things that the bots can do, including melting to slide through the bars of a jail cell. We see them melting down and splitting into smaller robots, melting over electronic circuits to solder them, and even removing a foreign object from a model human stomach.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed a robot, albeit a very small one, that can alter its shape by melting and reforming. That’s because it’s made of magnetoactive phase transitional matter (MPTM), which when exposed to magnetic fields can alternate between a liquid and solid state. They developed this by embedding magnetic particles in gallium metal, which melts at a cool 86 degrees.
