New Soft Robots Can Independently Inspect and Melt Ice at Minus 50 Degrees Celsius
Release time:
2025-09-12
Recently, a team led by Zhang Weihong, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Northwestern Polytechnical University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with scholars from the City University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, successfully developed a micro - multifunctional soft robot based on electroactive polymers. This soft robot can independently melt ice and conduct inspections in extremely cold environments, and it can flexibly move through and work collaboratively in maze - like narrow spaces. This achievement significantly enhances the operational capabilities of micro - robots in extreme and confined environments and was recently published in the international journal Advanced Science.
Traditional electroactive polymers have a single function and struggle to handle the challenges of complex environments. To address this, Zhang Weihong's team developed a new polyvinyl chloride - based material. By introducing vinyl acetate into the material, they effectively suppressed the heating and electrical breakdown problems caused by plasticizer migration, leading to a significant improvement in the material's performance.
Based on this material, the team created a compact and highly responsive micro - soft robot. Its key features are swarm intelligence and adaptability to extreme environments. Zhang Junshi, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Northwestern Polytechnical University, introduced that these robots can not only crawl rapidly on flat surfaces but also quickly connect or separate within a millimeter - scale range using their unique electro - adsorption structure. This enables the group to autonomously reconfigure and work collaboratively in narrow spaces. The robot is equipped with a self - heating function and can still operate effectively in an extremely cold environment of minus 50 degrees Celsius. It can perform tasks such as self - heating, inspections, and ice melting, showing significant application potential in scenarios like aircraft engine blade inspection, slit detection, and operations in cold regions.
Zhang Junshi stated that this research offers new ideas for the development of small intelligent robot systems in extreme environments and broadens the application prospects of new materials in fields such as electronic devices and bionic systems.
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