San Francisco (dpa) - A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has created a new metal ore that can be used to make small, flexible, folding robots called Origami.
Origami robots can perform multiple tasks according to their size and different possibilities.Micro-sizes can be used to deliver medication doses to the sick organs within the human body, and larger sizes are involved in rescue and rescue missions in tight spaces that are difficult for humans to reach.
Because these robots must be flexible and foldable, they are often made of paper, plastic or rubber materials, and are then added to sensors and electrical devices to operate and enable them to perform their functions, although these additional components represent an overload. Given the light weight of those robots.
But the research team at the University of Singapore was able to develop a new metal material suitable for the manufacture of these soft robots.
According to the Science Daily website, the new material combines metal materials such as platinum with other materials such as burning paper ash.
According to Science Daily, robots made from the new material are 30 percent more energy efficient and provide greater freedom of movement and speed for the robot.
The new material is made by placing cellulose leaves in a graphene oxide solution, and then submerging them in another solution containing metal ions such as platinum.This material is then burned in a closed oven at 800 ° C and then in an air-exposed place at 500 ° C.
"We have tested a lot of electrically conductive materials to come up with this unique combination of sensing and wireless connectivity," said Yang Haito, a researcher at the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore. Non-traditional for the sophisticated robotics industry. "
The final product of this process takes the form of a thin metal plate of no more than 90 millimeters thick, and consists of seventy percent of platinum and thirty percent of carbon, and the new material is flexible enough to flex without breaking as well as its ability to expand and convergence.
