Army Researchers Dream New Self-Healing Material Will Lead to 'Terminator' Technology

U.S. Army researchers have teamed with Texas A&M University to create a new polymer material that can shape-shift and autonomously heal itself as part of a research effort to improve future unmanned air and robotic vehicles. In early research, the first-of-its-kind, 3D-printable epoxy-based material can respond to stimuli, and researchers hope it will one day have embedded intelligence allowing it to adapt to its environment without any external control, according to a news release from Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's (CCDC) Army Research Laboratory. "We want a system of materials to simultaneously provide structure, sensing and response," said Frank Gardea, an aerospace engineer and principal investigator for the effort, at the CCDC. Gardea envisions a future platform, suitable for air and ground missions, with the "reconfiguration characteristics of the T-1000 character in the Hollywood film, 'Terminator 2.'" The hit film featured a Terminator made of liquid-metal that could form its arms into stabbing weapons and heal itself after being shot with everything from a 12-gauge shotgun to a 40mm grenade launcher. So far, the material has responded to temperature, which researchers first selected because of its ease of use during laboratory testing.