Real Transformers Becoming A Reality

Transformers has been the latest buzz with the movie and video games being released. The idea of shape shifting robots seems a little out there, but we’re actually much closer to the age of real life transforming robots than we realize.

Jennifer Lalli and engineer Richard Claus of NanoSonic in Blacksburg, Virginia have patented a new material called “metal rubber” that conducts electricity like metal yet can stretch at least ten times it’s length. In the past, the idea of a real life transforming robot was thought impossible because the required movements would cause metal to break and lose it’s electric connectivity. Originally invented in 2004, metal rubber has finally hit the product stage where it is economically viable to use on various projects.

The end result is a flexible material that conducts electricity about as well as copper. It’s also very tough.

“We can expose it to chemicals. We can put it in jet fuel. We can hit it with acetone. We can boil it in water overnight, and it doesn’t mechanically or chemically degrade. We can heat it up to about 700 degrees Fahrenheit. It won’t burn. We can drop it down to minus 167 degrees Fahrenheit, and it maintains its properties,” says Claus.

We’re probably still years away from watching the first Optimus Prime walking around on the Virginia Tech campus, but it’s nice to know that the technology is now possible.

News Source: Science Central

NanoSonic, based in Blacksburg, Va., was created in 1998 in cooperation with Virginia Tech, the state’s leading research university, and with the State of Virginia. NanoSonic has exclusively licensed nine patents covering electrostatic self-assembly (ESA) processing and use from Virginia Tech and is establishing its own intellectual property portfolio to enable process, material, and device commercialization.