What’s brown, slimy(黏滑的) and can move through narrow passages inside the body? It’s probably not what you’re thinking!
Scientists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong have created a magnetic (有磁性的) slime robot! It can carry out tasks like fixing broken circuits (电路) and picking up objects. They also think one day it could be put inside the human body to do things like help find items that have been swallowed by accident.
Li Zhang and his workmates mixed a range of substances together to make the slime which can be controlled by an outside magnetic field. They also added a substance that coats the magnetic parts to make them non-toxic (无毒的) for use in the human body.
The team then tested how well the soft-bodied robot functions in a range of situations, including finding and surrounding a lost battery in a model stomach and moving along while holding onto a piece of wire and also getting through tiny gaps.
There are robots in existence which can successfully find and hold onto objects and others that can go through tight spaces, however there aren’t many that can do both. The robot can also heal (治愈) itself after being cut into pieces.
“You can first pull it to a great extent so it looks like a liquid. Then afterwards, you can roll it like an octopus’ arm to carry something,” Li Zhang said.
“However, before they can use the robot inside a real person’s body, the scientists will first need to come up with a way of knowing where the robot is and how it’s performing,” Pietro Valdastri from the University of Leeds said. It would also need to be tested to make sure the magnetic parts which are toxic on their own aren’t able to separate from the slime. “They need to ensure its safety through future trials, but it’s definitely a sound approach,” Valdastri added.
【小题1】What can be learned about the slime robot?| A．It performs tasks by itself. |
| B．It can repair circuit boards. |
| C．It is harmful to the human body. |
| D．It can find mistakenly-swallowed objects. |
| A．They used it to fix a broken battery. |
| B．They put it into a real medical setting. |
| C．They checked how it recognised toxic substances. |
| D．They let it search for objects in a stomach model. |
| A．It is small and hard. |
| B．It can hold onto objects gently. |
| C．It is able to access hard-to-reach places. |
| D．It can pick up items and move through tight spaces. |
| A．It will need to be tracked. |
| B．It can behave like a liquid. |
| C．It should avoid non-toxic magnetic parts. |
| D．It can heal itself after being broken into pieces. |
