Hello future engineer,
Mankind has now inched a tad bit closer to making a closer replica of robots that mimic living beings. One of the essential differences was the robot's inability to heal itself. The University of Illinois material science and engineering professors have now made a breakthrough in this direction. No, they were not working with robotics applications in mind, but rather saving the downtime that goes in replacing the integrated circuits if the circuit board develops a crack or such.
What they did was to place tiny microcapsules (as small as 10 microns in diameter) filled with liquid metal on top of a gold line functioning as a circuit. When the circuit develops a crack, the microcapsules break open, releasing the liquid gallium-indium alloy into the gap and restoring the current. This is accomplished in blink of an eye (or less), with a success rate of 99% in most cases.
You can read more about it at, CNET
Hope you enjoyed it!
