Engineers develop self -healing muscles for robots

Engineer Eric Marcoka, along with graduates Ethan Krings and Patrick McManigal, recently presented a document at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Atlanta, Georgia, which defines a system -level approach to the Soft Robotics Technology, which can identify the location of the utte Sonmentation.

The document was among the 39 of the 1606 proposals, selected as the finalist of the ICRA 2025 prize. He was also the finalist of the prize for the best student in the mechanism and design category.

The team strategy can help to overcome the long -standing problem in the development of soft robotic systems that bring principles inspired by nature.

“There is a huge impetus in our community to reproduce traditional solid systems using soft materials and a huge movement towards biomimimal,” says Marquet initiate a self -consumer. “

In order to fill this gap, his team developed an intelligent, self-made artificial muscle containing multilayer architecture that allows the system to identify and locate damage, and then initiates a self-disclosure mechanism without external intervention.

“The human body and animals are incredible. We can cut and bother and get some serious injuries. And in most cases, with very limited external applications of dressings and medicines, we are able to self -treat many things,” said Marwaka. “If we can repeat this into synthetic systems, it will really transform the field and how we think about electronics and machines.”

The “muscle” of the team – or an actuator, the part of a robot that turns energy into a physical movement – has three layers. Lower – Damage detection layer – is a soft electronic skin composed of liquid metal microdropletons embedded in silicone elastometer. This skin adheres to the middle layer, the self -healing component, which is a solid thermoplastic elastomer. On top is the activating layer that starts the movement of the muscle when pressurized with water.

To start the process, the team induces five currents to monitor the lower “skin” of the muscle, which is connected to the microcontroller and a sensor chain. Drilling or damage to the pressure of this layer triggers the formation of an electrical network between the traces. The system recognizes this electrical footprint as evidence of damage and subsequently increases the current passing through the newly formed power grid.

This allows this network to function as a local Joule heater, turning the energy of electric current into heat around the fault areas. After a few minutes, this heat is melted and processes the middle thermoplastic layer, which seals the damage-an effective self-healing of the wound.

The last step is to reset the system back into its original state, wiping the electrical impair of the damage to the lower layer. To this end, the Marquika team uses the effects of electromigration, a process in which electric current causes metal atoms to migrate. The phenomenon is traditionally seen as an obstacle in metal chains, as moving atoms deform and cause gaps in the materials of the circuit, leading to damage and breakage of the device.

In a great innovation, researchers use electromigration to solve a problem that has long struck their efforts to create an autonomous self -healing system: the apparent persistence of electrical networks caused by damage in the lower layer. Without the ability to reset the monitoring of the base line, the system cannot complete more than one cycle of damage and repair.

He struck the researchers that electromigration-with the ability to separate physical metal ions and to trigger damage to an open circuit-can be the key to deleting newly formed traces. The strategy works: By increasing the current increase, the team can cause electromigration and thermal damage mechanisms that reset the damage network.

“Electromigration is usually seen as a huge negative,” Marvaka said. “This is one of the narrow places that prevents the tiny electronics. We use it in a unique and really positive way here. Instead of trying to prevent this, we use it for the first time to erase traces that we thought were constant.”

Autonomous self -healing technology has the potential to revolutionize many industries. In agricultural countries such as Nebraska can be a grace for robotics systems, which often encounter sharp objects such as twigs, thorns, plastic and glass. It can also revolutionize wearing health monitoring devices that must withstand daily wear.

The technology will also be beneficial for the society wider. Most consumer -based electronics have only one or two years of life, contributing to billions of pounds of electronic waste every year. This waste contains toxins such as lead and mercury, which threaten the health of humans and the environment. Self -medication technology can help eliminate the tide.

“If we can start creating materials that can passable and autonomously discover when damage happened, and then we initiate these self -obstruction mechanisms, it would really be transformative,” Marquika said.