Ferrofluid robot can split into tiny droplets and reform into a blob

A soft robot made from droplets of a magnetic fluid can break itself up and reconstitute itself later when it encounters obstacles or thin passages. Researchers say it could be used for targeted drug delivery in the future.

Xinjian Fan at Soochow University in Taiwan and his colleagues used droplets of a ferrofluid, in this case magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles suspended in oil, to make a soft robot about a centimetre in size. A set of controllable magnets can direct the robot to make itself bigger or smaller, as needed.