A new host of liquid metals that have applications towards soft robotics are making movies like ‘The Terminator’ transcend make-believe.
Terminators, according to the famous films, are cybernetic organisms, “living flesh over a metal endoskeleton.”
Scientists haven’t yet figured out how to create living flesh, but one type of synthetic skin developed by Korean researchers moves and senses like real skin: it contains ribbons of silicon sensors that withstand stretching and monitor temperature and pressure.
Another model, developed by Stanford researchers, has sensors so delicate they can register the weight of a butterfly.
Yet another type of skin has a crucial Terminator superpower: it can self-diagnose injury, and then heal itself.
According to researchers, experimental liquid metals like gallium and other alloys, when supplemented with nickel or iron, are able to flex and mold into shapes with the use of magnets, much like the iconic movie villain, T-1000 from ‘The Terminator 2: Judgement Day.’
While other such metals have been developed, they contended with two major drawbacks.
First, prior substances could only stretch horizontally due to their high surface tension, making them severely limited in terms of mobility.
Secondly, the prior substances could only be manipulated when completely submerged in water.
If removed from liquid, the substances turned into a kind of paste, researchers say.
New advancements, however, have made strides in solving those two issues.
By adding iron and nickel to gallium as well as a tin alloy immersed in hydrochloric acid, researchers say they were able to drastically reduce surface tension and subsequently stretch the material to four times its resting length.
The material — tested while submerged in liquid — also showed conductivity by connecting two electrodes and lighting up an LED bulb.
Researchers found that the metal also crossed another hurdle, it was capable of connecting to an electrode positioned vertically above the metal, outside of the water without turning into a paste.
Though the demonstration is quite a ways from fully mimicking the movies, the researchers paper, published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces says their discovery could be a first step.
“This… presents a fundamental and promising platform for the liquid metals to further develop,” reads the study.
“And eventually lead to the dynamically reconfigurable intelligent and biomimetic soft robots in the future.”
Engineers have also worked up some pretty sturdy metal endoskeletons to go under that synthetic skin.
Robotics company Boston Dynamics has created several cutting edge bipedal humanoid robot bodies: Atlas and its predecessor PETMAN are known for their human-like gaits and balance.
They can squat, jump, navigate rocky terrain, and balance on one foot, even when side-slammed with a 20-pound weight.
Disguise them in camouflage, and they look almost indistinguishable from a walking human.
Researchers are also creating Artificial Intelligence algorithms designed for robots to explore and learn from their experiences.
Already curious robots can learn about the world in much the same way as a baby.
iCub robots, designed to have the same affordances of a small child, have learned how to crawl, solve mazes, and learn new words by interacting with people.
In another series of studies, cognitive scientists programmed a robot “puppy” to be curious like a child: It assesses its own knowledge, then explores accordingly.
Miraculously, the robot learned new skills in the same order a child might.
No cyborgs walk among us yet, but it’s clear their time is coming.