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Insight China (14) Self-Fueled Biomimetic Liquid Metal Mollusk

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Liquid metal mollusk that “eats” fuel is discovered

A first ever self-powered pump made of liquid metal was demonstrated, paving the way for making dynamically reconfigurable intelligent soft robots
news | March 19, 2015
http://serious-science.org/news/2843

We have asked one of the authors of this research, Professor Jing Liu from Tsinghua University, to comment on this work.

The Study

This study discovered for the first time a fundamental route of making milli-/centimeter-scaled self-powered soft machine based on liquid metal materials, which could move spontaneously and swiftly in various aqueous solutions and structured channels with a pretty large velocity around 5 cm/s.

A surprising fact arising is that such autonomous locomotion could persist for an extremely long time like over one hour by only taking a small aluminum flake as it’s “food” or fuel,

Future Direction
From the long run along this direction, a most exciting target is perhaps to make the flexible, smart and reconfigurable machine

From the long run along this direction, a most exciting target is perhaps to make the flexible, smart and reconfigurable machine,

comments: Still in its early stage, too much speculation.

also:
Terminator-Like "Smart Liquid Metal" May Be The First Step In A New Arms Race
By Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer Posted March 18, 2015
http://www.popsci.com/terminator-2-smart-liquid-metal-developed-tsinghua-university-researchers

Liquid Metal Robots Are Almost Here and They Are Made in China (Popular Mechanics)
http://sputniknews.com/science/20150311/1019356988.html

The Robotics Industry Is on the Verge of an Incredible Breakthrough
http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/the-robotics-industry-is-on-the-verge-of-an-incredible-breakthrough.html/?a=viewall