Collaborate Disseminate
Ceramic materials are strong and can stand up to heat very well, but they’re notoriously fragile. Now, researchers at Texas A&M have uncovered a previously unknown self-healing mechanism in a certain type of ceramic, which works at room temperature.Con… Continue reading Kinky class of ceramics self-heals cracks at room temperature
Although they’re malleable and adaptable, soft robots and flexible electronics also aren’t as protected as their rigid-shelled counterparts, so they’re more likely to get ripped or punctured. A new stretchable, self-healing conductive material was desi… Continue reading Self-healing electronic material withstands stretching and jabbing
There are now a number of materials designed to give robots or prostheses a sense of touch. And while most of them are thin and skin-like, a new alternative takes the form of a spongey foam – and it combines several desirable qualities.Continue Reading… Continue reading Touch-sensitive, self-healing AiFoam may find use in robotics and more
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about micro-robots, that could one day perform tasks such as capturing pollutants from the environment. Scientists have now created a sturdy batch of such bots, that heal back together when cut in two.Continue ReadingCat… Continue reading Tiny swimming robots heal back together when sliced in half
Biological machines such as human and animal bodies are quite incredible. Your body seamlessly incorporates materials as different as muscle, bone, and tendons into an integrated whole. Now Texas A&M researchers think they can imitate nature using polymer networks that have a tunable stiffness. As a bonus, similar to biological …read more
Materials that can heal themselves after becoming damaged have opened up some interesting new possibilities over the past decade or so, pointing to a future of scratch-resistant car paints and space ships that can plug their own holes. A newly develope… Continue reading Squid-inspired robotic muscles heal themselves in a second
A substance known as calcium phosphate cement is already commonly used to repair broken bones, both holding them together and encouraging the growth of new bone tissue. Now, scientists have added carbon fibers to the material to also make it self-heali… Continue reading Carbon fibers allow bone cement to heal itself
When a regular material is torn or ruptured, it stays that way unless we tend to it with our hands or a machine to repair the damage. But a new class of materials is emerging that needs no such intervention, the latest example of which is a conductive … Continue reading Conductive polymer takes a seamless approach to self-healing
If we’re ever going to get on top of the whole plastic waste problem, a partial solution may lie in substances that fix themselves when broken, instead of having to be discarded. With that in mind, many groups have been developing self-healin… Continue reading Self-healing material has resin in its "veins"
For many of us, our first robots, or technical projects, were flimsy ordeals built with cardboard, duct tape, and high hopes. Most of us grow past that scene, and we learn to work supplies which require more than a pair of kitchen scissors. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Iowa State University have made a material which goes beyond durable, it can heal itself when wounded. To a small robot, a standard hole puncher is a dire assailant, but the little guy in the video after the break keeps hopping around despite a couple of new piercings.
The researcher’s goal …read more