In the movie "Terminator 2", the T-1000 robot can become liquid to repair itself through narrow spaces or after being harmed. Now, a phase change material made of wax and foam can be switched between soft and hard. The material was developed by a team of MIT professors, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics, and can be used to build deformable surgical robots. The robot can reach a particular point by moving the body without destroying any organs or blood vessels along the way, and can also be used to search for survivors through search and rescue operations through the rubble.
The only way to build a deformable robot is to develop a material that can switch between soft and hard states, Hosui said. From waxes and foams, researchers have developed a new phase change material that can switch between soft and hard states. To create a substance that can change between states, researchers use a wax-coated foam structure. They chose the foam because it can be squeezed into a fraction of the normal size, but once released it will bounce back to its original shape. The wax coating can change from a hard shell to a soft and flexible surface with gentle heating. In addition to the material switching to its soft state, heating the wax this way will also repair any damage suffered. "This is a self-healing material," she said.
The researchers melted polyurethane foam in a wax bath. Then they squeeze the foam to encourage it to absorb the wax. To study the properties of more detailed materials, they used a 3-D printer to build a foam lattice structure to allow careful control of the position of each pillar and hole.
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