Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

Post a Comment

Meet the Robot That Heals Itself in Just One Minute

Imagine a robot that can feel pain like a human, recognize that it's been hurt, and then heal itself — all within one minute. Sounds like science fiction, right? But thanks to the brilliant minds at Cornell University, this science fiction has become a reality. A team of engineers, led by Associate Professor Rob Shepherd, has developed a soft robot that can detect damage and heal itself automatically. This breakthrough could change how we use robots, especially in dangerous environments where human presence is risky.

In this article, we will explore how this robot works, what makes it special, and what it could mean for the future of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). 

Meet the Robot That Heals Itself in Just One Minute

What Is a Soft Robot?

A soft robot is a robot made from flexible materials instead of hard metal or plastic. These materials allow the robot to bend, twist, and move more like living creatures. Soft robots are perfect for exploring tight spaces or handling delicate objects. However, their biggest problem is that they are easily damaged because of the soft materials used to make them.

That’s where this new invention comes in. The robot created at Cornell University not only detects when it's damaged but also fixes itself quickly, without any human help.

The Goal Behind the Invention

Rob Shepherd and his team at Cornell Engineering wanted to solve a big problem:
How can robots survive longer and perform more tasks even if they get damaged?

Their solution was simple yet brilliant — create a robot that can:

  • Feel the damage

  • Understand the damage

  • Heal the damage automatically

This robot doesn't need a technician or replacement parts. It heals itself much like how human skin heals after a small cut.

How Does the Robot Detect Damage?

To detect damage, the team used a special kind of sensor called a stretchable fiber optic sensor. These sensors were developed in the Organic Robotics Lab and are already used in various robotic systems.

Here’s how it works in easy steps:

  1. LED lights travel through a clear path called a waveguide, which guides the light like a tunnel.

  2. A photodiode, a small electronic part, checks how strong the light is.

  3. If the robot gets cut or bent, the light changes.

  4. The sensor immediately notices the change and tells the robot that it’s been damaged.

Even if the waveguide is pierced or partially cut, it still works. That’s what makes this robot very special — it continues to “feel” the damage even when it's hurt.

The Self-Healing Material: SHeaLDS

The robot’s healing powers come from a new material called SHeaLDS — short for Self-Healing Light Guides for Dynamic Sensing.

SHeaLDS is made using:

  • Polyurethane urea elastomer — a soft, flexible material.

  • Hydrogen bonds — to help quick healing.

  • Disulfide exchanges — to add strength.

This smart combination allows the material to heal fast after getting damaged, just like how skin cells work in our body.

Real-Life Test: How Fast Can It Heal?

To test the robot, the researchers made a soft robot that looked like a four-legged starfish. They added the SHeaLDS material and sensors inside it and then:

  • Punctured one leg six times

  • The robot detected each cut

  • Healed itself completely each time

  • Healing time? Just about a minute!

Even more amazing — the robot changed the way it walked after getting hurt. It adapted to its new condition and kept moving. That means it can keep working even while it's healing!

Why Is This Important?

This technology can be very useful in places where human access is too dangerous, such as:

  • Disaster zones (earthquakes, floods)

  • Nuclear plants

  • Deep-sea exploration

  • Outer space missions

In such places, having a robot that can repair itself means:

  • Less downtime

  • Fewer repair costs

  • Longer missions

  • Safer operations

This robot is not just flexible and smart — it's tough and independent, which is exactly what we need in dangerous environments.

Limitations of the Robot

Even though the robot is impressive, it's not perfect. Rob Shepherd explains that the material behaves a bit like human skin. So while it can heal from cuts, it cannot heal well from burns, acid damage, or extreme heat.

This is because those kinds of damage change the chemistry of the material itself. Just like how our skin doesn’t heal well from burns, the robot’s material struggles with those conditions too.

But for everyday cuts, bumps, or scrapes, this robot is more than capable.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The research team plans to take this technology one step further. They want to combine SHeaLDS with AI.

With the help of machine learning algorithms, the robot could:

  • Learn from each damage and healing experience.

  • Get better at detecting what kind of damage it’s dealing with.

  • Adjust its movements and behavior based on past injuries.

  • Perform more complex tasks by using the same self-healing “skin” to feel the environment.

This would create a truly smart and long-lasting robot — one that can not only survive but thrive in rough situations.

Future Possibilities

The idea of self-healing robots opens up many new possibilities. In the future, we might see:

  • Self-repairing space robots on Mars or the Moon.

  • Underwater robots that fix themselves in deep oceans.

  • Rescue robots that move through collapsed buildings to find people.

  • Medical robots with skin-like sensors that work inside the human body.

And the best part? These robots will need very little maintenance and will last much longer.

Conclusion

The creation of a self-healing robot that detects damage and repairs itself in just a minute is an exciting step in the future of robotics. Developed by Rob Shepherd and his team at Cornell University, this robot could change how we use machines in harsh or dangerous conditions. With the power of soft materials, smart sensors, and future AI integration, these robots will not only be strong and smart but also self-sufficient.

We are entering an age where robots won’t just work for us — they’ll look after themselves, too. And that’s truly revolutionary.

Reference: Hedan Bai et al., "Autonomous self-healing optical sensors for damage intelligent soft-bodied systems", Sci. Adv.8, eabq 2104 (2022).DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq2104

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Planetary Movements Might Explain Sunspot Cycles and Solar Phenomena

Sunspots, dark patches on the Sun's surface, follow a cycle of increasing and decreasing activity every 11 years. For years, scientists have relied on the dynamo model to explain this cycle. According to this model, the Sun's magnetic field is generated by the movement of plasma and the Sun's rotation. However, this model does not fully explain why the sunspot cycle is sometimes unpredictable. Lauri Jetsu, a researcher, has proposed a new approach. Jetsu’s analysis, using a method called the Discrete Chi-square Method (DCM), suggests that planetary movements, especially those of Earth, Jupiter, and Mercury, play a key role in driving the sunspot cycle. His theory focuses on Flux Transfer Events (FTEs), where the magnetic fields of these planets interact with the Sun’s magnetic field. These interactions could create the sunspots and explain other solar phenomena like the Sun’s magnetic polarity reversing every 11 years. The Sun, our closest star, has been a subject of scient...
Post a Comment
Read more

Could Primordial Black Holes Have Formed from Aborted Phase Transitions?

Ai and colleagues propose a new way that primordial black holes (PBHs) could form in the early universe, using a mechanism that involves an "aborted phase transition." This takes place during the reheating phase after inflation, a period when the universe's temperature rises and then falls. During reheating, the universe is filled with a pressureless fluid called a reheaton. As the temperature rises to a maximum (Tmax), it surpasses the critical temperature needed for a phase transition, but not enough for bubbles to fully form and expand. These bubbles, which briefly nucleate as the temperature reaches Tmax, expand and then shrink as the temperature falls back below the critical level. When the bubbles shrink, they leave behind dense regions. These regions collect surrounding matter and eventually collapse into primordial black holes. The PBHs formed this way continue to grow in mass until the universe transitions into radiation domination. Primordial black holes (PBHs) ...
Post a Comment
Read more