Researchers in China have developed the world’s first liquid metal robot, which has the ability to change shape and power itself.

“The soft machine looks rather intelligent and [can] deform itself according to the space it voyages in, just like [the] Terminator does from the science-fiction film”, affirmed Jing Liu from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Liu said that the motor is made up of a gallium alloy called galinstan. Gallium has the melting point of 29.76 degrees Celsius. When gallium is combined with tin and indium having proportions of 68.5% gallium, 21.5% indium and 10% tin then the combination results into galinstan.

The resulting alloy has the melting point of minus 19 degrees Celsius, which means that it is a liquid at room temperature. The researchers affirmed that when the resulting alloy is kept in a sodium hydroxide solution and in contact with a flake of aluminum then the drop of liquid can move on its own for around 30 minutes.

An imbalance in the charge across the drop leads to a pressure differential between the front and the back that pushes it forward.

Second method is aluminum reacts with the sodium hydroxide solution. Upon reaction, it releases hydrogen bubbles hence, providing propulsion. It can have potential applicability as a delivery method for materials in pipes.

When galinstan is held still then its drop acts like a pump. In the Liu's experiment, there was no external pressure applied and was self-powered. It can pump around 50 milliliters of water a second. Liu thinks that the research can be used in order to coordinate a group of galinstan drops.