MIT engineers has developed transparent, gel-based robots that may one day assist in surgical operations and evade underwater detection. Some gel-based robots made by Engineers at MIT which are fabricated transparent and move when water is pumped in and out of them. These robots can perform a number of fast, forceful tasks, including kicking a ball underwater. They also can grab and release a live fish. The robots are made entirely of hydro gel, rubbery, nearly transparent material that’s composed mostly of water. Every robot assemblage of hollow, precisely designed hydro gel structures, connected to rubbery tubes. When the researchers pump water into the transparent robots, the structures quickly inflate in orientations that enable the robots to curl up or stretch out. The team designed several transparent robots, including a finlike structure that flaps back and forth. Because the robots are both powered by and made almost entirely of water, they have similar visual and acoustic properties to water. The engineers said that bots may be virtually invisible and these robots are designed for underwater applications. Xuanhe Zhao, led the group associate professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at MIT. “Soft Hydro gels, wet, biocompatible, and can form more friendly interfaces with human organs,” Zhao says.
Paraphrased by: Sakib Jubab