Wolverine-Inspired Material To Allow Robots to Self-Heal

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The superhero Wolverine could self-heal. It seems that he was the inspiration for the scientists who has come up with a material that is transparent, highly stretchable, conductive, and has self-healing properties.

Earlier, Christoph Keplinger (a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder) and his team had developed an ionic conductor which was stretchable and transparent. It could be used to power artificial muscles in humanoid robots.  Cho Wang, a professor at the University of California, and his team of scientists.

A story published by the Digital Trends claims that there has been a new development in the materials engineering field. Chao Wang (a professor at the University of California, Riverside) and his team added salt with high-ionic-strength to a polymer containing both positively and negatively charged molecules. The resulting material can heal within 24 hours on its own, stretch up to 50 times its original size, withstand electrochemical conditions, and restore its electrical properties almost instantly.

This material can be used to power artificial muscles in soft robots too, which tend to get damaged easily and are difficult to repair. It can bring about a revolution in the field of advanced robotics as it can be used to make robots with a soft and elastic body, with stretchable electronic circuits too.

The Science Daily further mentions that this see-through self-healing material can also be used to make better electronic devices and longer-lasting batteries. For the first time, ions can flow through a material, lending it the self-healing property. Such materials are called ionic conductors and can be used for solar energy conversion, and storage of energy.

Scientists say that if lithium ion batteries (used in electric cars and other electronics) are made from this material, they can last for a longer time. Biosensors used in the field of medicine and those used for environmental monitoring can also be improved with the help of this material. Robots made of this new material can heal themselves after mechanical failures too.