Liquid metal tendons give robots the ability to heal themselves
Liquid metal tendons give robots the ability to heal themselves In Japan, robotics researchers from the University of Tokyo's JSK Laboratory have created a prototype robotic leg with a metal tendon that can repair fractures. The not-so-distant future where robots can heal themselves doesn't seem like a fantasy anymore. The not-so-distant future where robots can heal themselves doesn't seem like a fantasy anymore. How does it do this? Simply by melting itself and then changing itself into a single piece. The work was presented at the recent IEEE/RSJ 2019 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. The researchers who developed a special metal tendon for the robot from Japan say that the self-healing module consists of two halves connected via magnets and springs. Each module half is filled with an alloy that has a low melting point of just 50 degrees Celsius. When the fuse is blown, the cartridges melt the alloy and allow the two halves to fuse together. Alt...