It’s true… the T-1000 is the biggest, baddest, and most feared assassin of all time
T-1000, an iconic villain from the terminator film franchise was known to many of us. He is a robot made of a liquefied metal, who can transform shapes and also can melt and regain his form again. Yes, it was a wonderful vision of director James Cameron for his iconic blockbuster terminator judgment day. What if we happen to have it in real life? The answer to this question is “yes”.
There are works undergoing to develop a model of the robot which can be liquefied and can reform its shape. This has been given a positive node by the researchers of Carnegie Mellon University. The inspiration behind this scientific innovation is a marine animal called “sea cucumber”. Sea cucumbers “can very rapidly and reversibly change their stiffness,” senior author and mechanical engineer Carmel Majidi told.
How do we manipulate liquid metal to make it solidify?
Robots is often a general term in this day of technology. We often see different companies exhibiting them at different expos and also at various places. It was once a very rare term to use only in some movies. Traditionally, these robots appear to be assembled of steel parts that look like a human, which are stiff and rigid. On the other hand, we have soft robots which are weaker and hard to control. By aligning these two features plan for making a robot was always in the basket.
To build something which is hard and soft at the same time the team of researchers used gallium is used which has a low melting point of 30°C. magnets are implanted which provides control in operating the robot to melt and move. These magnets help in conducting electricity help in rising the temperature to melt the metal and also have alternate magnetic fields. Using the implanted magnets, a solid-liquid phase transition is done.
This advancement in science has changed the way we think about robots
This newly developed robot has gone through a few tests which show positive results, it can jump up to 20 times the length of its body, and climb walls. A mock test shows it can escape from the iron grill which acts as a prison. It can also support weights thirty times its own weight when it is in the solid state.
Research shows that it has wide applications in the field of biotechnology by using I in biological activities such as moving it in the inner stomach, etc. but the cons show that it can’t resist the temperature, so developing a prototype is on its way.
Takeaway: What are the future prospects of this technology?
Future work in this path should explore how these robots can be used in the biomedical field. The data available from research is just a prototype and further progress must be done in order to develop a drug-delivery robot.
It is a path-breaking discovery, being a liquid it can be sent to spaces where a solid can’t be in. because of its reframing ability it can perform the operations a solid can do.
This discovery might lead to finding many more innovative metals to be helpful. The application is not only restricted to one field but can also show a lot of progress in other forms of engineering also.
