Soft gel could power robot muscles that grow stronger with a workout

By Matthew Sparkes

Our muscles get stronger when put under stress and now robots could do the same, thanks to a soft gel that becomes harder when exposed to vibration.

Zhao Wang at the University of Chicago and his colleagues created the gel by embedding zinc oxide nanoparticles into a cellulose mixture. They then vibrated the material using a device designed to test car and aeroplane designs and found that the nanoparticles emitted an electrical charge, creating new links within the gel as the material turned into a polymer.

The team found that the strength …