Scientists Create Elastic Robot That Can Be Useful For The Human Body

Scientists have succeeded in creating an elastic robot made of magnetic slime. (photo : Doc. Advanced Functional Materials)

JAKARTA - Scientists have succeeded in making an elastic robot made of magnetic slime. The robot can navigate narrow passages, grasp objects, and repair broken circuits.

Even more interesting, this slime robot can be used inside the human body to pick up objects that are accidentally swallowed. The slime robot itself is controlled by a magnet, is also a good conductor of electricity, and can be used to connect electrodes.

Prof Li Zhang, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who co-created the slime robot, stressed that the material was real scientific research and not just an April Fool's joke, regardless of the time of its release.

In addition, the slime robot also contains magnetic particles so that it can be manipulated to move, rotate, or form a circle and the letter C when an external magnet is applied to it.

However, the robot whose research results have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Functional Materials does not yet have an official commercial purpose.

“The main goal is to deploy it like a robot. We still regard it as fundamental research, trying to understand the nature of the material," Zhang said as quoted by The Guardian, Monday, April 4.

Slime itself has visco-elastic properties, which means that it is sometimes solid and liquid. Made from a mixture of polymers called polyvinyl alcohol, borax, which is widely used in cleaning products, and neodymium magnet particles.

“It is very similar to mixing water with (corn) starch at home. When you touch it very quickly, it behaves like a solid object. When you touch it gently and slowly, it becomes like a liquid," Zhang said.

Mixing the two produces an oobleck, a non-Newtonian liquid whose viscosity changes due to force. Actually, scientists have no plans to test it in the medical world, they just imagine this slime robot could be useful in the digestive system, for example in reducing the danger of ingested objects.

Because the magnetic particles in the slime itself are poison. The scientists coated the slime in a layer of silica, the main component in sand, to form a hypothetical protective layer.

"Its safety (it will) also depend a lot on how long you are going to keep it in your body," Zhang said.