Technical breakthrough! Experts design a self-healing soft robot

[Netease smart news August 18 news] self-healing soft robot is a major technological breakthrough. Recently, according to foreign media reports, robotics experts have designed a soft robot that can repair itself.

As we all know, our hands are cut or the muscles are torn and it can heal over time. However, if the robot can also heal it? A new study published in the journal Science Robot shows that this situation may occur in the near future.

Researchers from the University of Brussels (VUB) have extended this self-healing feature to soft robots. These robots are made of flexible materials that can be used to obtain fine items in the food industry or in minimally invasive surgery. They also play an important role in rehabilitation and prosthetic rehabilitation.

“Robots are very complex and difficult to repair.” “Soft robots are particularly vulnerable to sharp objects and high pressures,” explained Bram燰anderborght, one of the project's five researchers, Professor VUB. "This research is the first step in introducing self-healing materials into soft robots. We think this will open up a whole new field of self-healing robotics research."

In their experiment, the research team created a soft robot entirely made of rubber polymer. After being damaged, these materials can first be restored to their original shape and then completely healed. He continued: "This principle was tested on three self-healing robot parts: a pliers, robot hand, and artificial muscle used by robots to pick up objects. Real-life injuries can heal completely without leaving scars." After that, the robots can completely restart their mission."

Once the soft robot is damaged, this material can be restored after heating at 80 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes. After heating at 25 degrees Celsius for 24 hours, the strength and flexibility of the damaged robot will also recover.

The research team was supported by the European Research Council and they have great hopes for the impact of this research. “We hope humans can trust robots and know that their performance does not depend on human detection and repair damage,” said Seppe Candle, who has been involved in the project since 2014.

In fact, the gap in this industry makes this study particularly exciting. Russell, an electrical engineering specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, confirmed: "The lack of healing capability is one of the major drawbacks of our mechanical systems compared to their biological systems. Proper progress in this direction can greatly improve the robustness of our machines. ."

“The self-healing soft robot technology is a major breakthrough,” said Fumiya Sida, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Soft Robotics. In a people-centric environment, self-healing will make the entire mechanical system cheaper and safer.

In addition, Tedrake also doubts how this technology will be extended to other areas in the future, "such as auto repair tires." However, more directly, the VUB team hopes to add a sensor network to detect the health of the robot, even new materials.

(Selected from: Wired and quasi-students 庵 庵  : :: Simone)

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