How Would You Like Your Robot?

Soft and squishy or hard as nails? If you thought that a robot was built only with metals that gave it definite shape and strength, think again. Scientific experimentation over the last couple of decades has led to the manufacture of a number of new materials that can be used for robotic construction.

The latest is a phase changing material that was built from wax and foam which can go from soft to hard states. Robots made from this material will be able to use this characteristic beautifully. The material was developed at MIT by Anette Hosoi and Nadia Cheng along with help from researchers at Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and Stony Brook University.

The first application they are looking at is to make a deformable surgical robot that can move through the body without damaging any organs along the way. Another kind of robot built from this material will be able to move through rubble while looking for survivors. Its unique construction material allowing it to squeeze into areas other robots can not.

The foam structure coated in wax may be still in experimental stages but the applications of such a material are boundless. A large number of scientific projects could be undertaken just to list out the different kinds of uses that the material could be put to.