A Terminator-style robot can survive a stabbing

Sci-fi fans will know that the Terminator was just a ruthless killing machine because of its effortless ability to heal itself after damage.

Now, engineers at Cornell University in New York may be on their way to recreating this remarkable self-healing ability.

Experts have created a robot that is able to detect when and where it has been damaged and then instantly restore itself.

The small, soft robot, which looks like a four-legged starfish, uses light to detect changes to its surface as a result of wounds.

After the researchers punctured one of his legs, the robot was able to detect the damage and self-heal the incisions.

“Our lab is always trying to make robots more stamina and agility, so they run longer with more capabilities,” said Professor Rob Shepherd of Cornell University.

If you make the bots run for too long, the damage will accumulate. How can we allow them to repair or deal with this damage?

While not indestructible, Shepard said the new starfish robot — which is only about five inches long — has similar characteristics to the human body.

“It doesn’t cure well from burning or from things with acid or heat, because that will change the chemical properties,” he said.

“But we can do a good job of healing wounds.”

The team’s X-shaped robot crawls like a starfish thanks to compressed air pumped through its body.

It’s covered in a layer of self-healing fiber-optic sensors, which coupled with LED lights are able to detect small changes on its surface.

In fiber-optic sensors, light from an LED is sent through a structure called an optical waveguide, which directs the light beam in a specific direction.

Also included in the robot is a photodiode, which detects changes in light intensity to determine when and where a material is deformed.

For the actual healing process, they used a polyurethane urea elastomer for his “skin,” which is a transparent, flexible material that includes hydrogen bonds.

Destroyers are able to repair themselves. Pictured, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

After researchers punctured one of its legs, the robot was able to detect damage and self-heal the wounds

When cut, their exposed sides become chemically reactive, causing the crosslinked polymer chains to realign so that they heal.

The researchers say that so-called SHeaLDS technology – ‘self-healing light guides for dynamic sensing’ – allows for a soft, damage-resistant robot that can self-heal wounds at room temperature without any outside interference.

In their experiments, they punctured one of the robot’s legs six times, after which the robot was able to detect damage, self-heal each wound in about a minute and keep moving.

The robot can also independently adapt its gait based on the damage it sensed, such as the “danger animal flight response”.

The team now wants to integrate the robot with machine learning algorithms that are able to recognize different “haptic events” that might damage it.

In their paper published in the journal, the researchers say: Science advances.

“Damage information is essential in damage-prone environments, such as space suits and supersonic parachute monitoring in space, as well as applications where device longevity is preferred, such as wearables for human-machine interaction.”

The robot is covered in a layer of self-healing fiber-optic sensors, which paired with LED lights are able to detect small changes on its surface.

In general, soft robots are made of flexible materials, inspired by the soft tissues that make up humans and other organisms.

The problem is that the soft materials used make them susceptible to damage from sharp objects or excessive pressure.

Through self-healing, robots can repair soft-bodied systems in certain environments, such as space suits that have been hit by space debris or underwater equipment.

Further development of the technology could also allow Terminator-style killer robots, designed for the battlefield, to repair damage sustained during combat.