Scientists Create Dancing 'Transformers' Metabots
Scientists Create Dancing 'Transformers' Metabots. Engineers at Princeton University have created bizarre new 'metabots' that can transform shape, move, and dance independent of any motor or gears. The 'metabots', which Princeton researchers have likened to rudimentary versions of the Autobots and the Decepticons from the Transformers franchise are made from a new type of material that can expand, assume new shapes, move and follow electromagnetic commands like a remotely controlled robot even though it lacks any motor or internal gears. 'You can transform between a material and a robot, and it is controllable with an external magnetic field,' said researcher Glaucio Paulino. In this case, the researchers built their metamaterial using a combination of simple plastics and custom-made magnetic composites. Using a magnetic field, the researchers changed the metamaterial's structure, causing it to expand, move and deform in different directions, all remotely without touching the metamaterial. A more distant use for the new material would be to design physical structures that mimic the performance of logic gates made with transistors in a computer, potentially creating complex structures that can move in intricate ways, like a Transformer!
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