It won’t be long before we do away with rotating electric motors in robots. There are much more practical designs to be used (muscle replicas), and scientists are pursuing these designs in what is an actual field of work: robotics. But one new invention may allow us to leap even further.

A team of scientists in China has obtained a liquid metal akin to mercury (but made from gallium, indium, and tin) which ‘eats’ aluminum to move. The process is slightly more complex than that, and it’s all explained in the embedded YouTube clip below.

It has been speculated that the invention – described in detail in a paper published in Advanced Materials – could be used create shape shifting robots like those in the Terminator series. It’s doubtful (at least for the time being) for two reasons:

• the alloy’s applicability is very limited without many other extras (such as nanotechnology), as the blobs are not very programmable in and of themselves
• the elements required to make this liquid metal are found in ore deposits that aren’t economically exploitable (indium, for example, is actually quite rare in Earth’s crust), and therefore it could prove unfeasible in large-scale production

Its creators say the substance could be used in medicine (to carry a cure to hard-to-reach organs), as well as in other industries that involve ‘meticulous’ actions. It’s certainly a promising development, but it’s probably not enough to make Skynet a reality any time soon. Enjoy the video, and have a great Sunday!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bGYNwN3hXY[/youtube]