Scientists develop self-healing elastomeric robot

Ithaca, New York – A team of researchers at the Cornell University have developed a soft elastomer-based robot that can detect damage and heal itself.

Led by Rob Shepherd, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in Cornell Engineering, the researchers combined stretchable fibre-optic sensors with a polyurethane urea elastomer.

The elastomer, said a Cornell release 7 Dec, incorporated hydrogen bonds, for rapid healing, and disulphide exchanges for strength.

The resulting 'self-healing light guides for dynamic sensing' (SHeaLDS) provide reliable dynamic sensing, are damage-resistant, and can self-heal from cuts at room temperature without any external intervention, said the release.

To demonstrate the technology, the researchers installed the SHeaLDS in a soft robot resembling a four-legged starfish equipped with feedback control.

Then, they punctured one of the legs six times.

According to the university release, the robot was able to detect the damage and self-heal each cut in about a minute.

The robot could also autonomously adapt its gait based on the damage it sensed.

However, while the material is sturdy, it is not indestructible.

“They have similar properties to human flesh,” Shepherd said.

“You don’t heal well from burning, or from things with acid or heat, because that will change the chemical properties. But we can do a good job of healing from cuts.”

For the next stage, Shepherd intends to integrate the SHeaLDS with machine learning algorithms that recognise tactile events.

This, he said, will eventually create “a very enduring robot that has a self-healing skin, but uses the same skin to feel its environment to be able to do more tasks.”