Human beings are known for many different things, but most importantly of all, they are known for pursuing growth on a consistent basis. This progressive approach, on our part, has got us to hit upon some huge milestones, with technology emerging as quite a major member of the stated group. The reason why we hold technology in such a high regard is, by and large, predicated upon its skill-set, which ushered us towards a reality that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look beyond the surface for a second, it will become clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired from the way we applied those skills across a real world environment. The latter component, in fact, did a lot to give the creation a spectrum-wide presence and start what was a full-blown tech revolution. Of course, this revolution then went on to scale up the human experience from all conceivable directions, but even after achieving a feat so notable, technology will somehow continue to deliver the right goods. The same has turned more evident over the recent past, and assuming a new discovery made by the Carnegie Mellon University works out just like we envision, it should only propel that trend towards bigger and better heights moving forward.

The researching team at Carnegie Mellon University has successfully developed a soft material, which packs up metal-like conductivity and self-healing properties to maintain optimal electrical adhesion and support digital electronics and motors. According to certain reports, the researchers used the material to conceive three elements, with each one purposed around representing a unique use case. These elements included a damage-resistant robot that was designed as a snail, a model circuit to power a toy car, a reconfigurable bioelectrode to measure activity on different locations of the body. In the first use case, we saw the fully untethered snail robot using the self-healing conductive material on its soft exterior, which notably had a battery and electric motor to control motion. To initiate their test, the researchers severed the stated conducive material, a move which instantly reduced the robot’s speed by 50%. However, given the material’s self healing properties, it got the robot, when manually reconnected, to effectively pull back its electric connection and reclaim 68% of its original speed.

During the next simulation, the team brought in a piece of gel to connect the toy car with a motor. Once they split that gel into three sections and connected one section to a roof-mounted LED, though, they still, quite astonishingly, managed to restore the connection between the car and the motor using just two remaining sections.

“This is the first soft material that can maintain a high-enough electrical conductivity to support digital electronics and power-hungry devices,” said Carmel Majidi, the lead author of this study and a professor of Mechanical Engineering. “We have demonstrated you can actually power motors with it.”

On to the last demonstration, here, the researchers took their prized material and redesigned it as a bioelectrode to obtain electromyography (EMG) readings Thanks to a modular design; the bioelectrode displayed a clear flexibility in measuring everything from activity on the anterior muscles of the forearm to any internal movement that might be occurring around the calf region. Such versatility paves the path for tissue-electronic interfaces like EMGs and EKGs to start using soft and reusable materials at some point.

“Softbotics is about seamlessly integrating robotics into everyday life, putting humans at the center,” Majidi explained. “Instead of being wired up with biomonitoring electrodes connecting patients to bio measurement hardware mounted on a cart, our gel can be used as a bioelectrode that directly interfaces with body-mounted electronics that can collect information and transmit it wirelessly.”

For the future, Majidi and his team hopes to complement this work on artificial nervous tissue with an extensive research on artificial muscle so to build robots made completely out of these soft, gel-like materials.