Terminator-like 'Squishy' Robots May Soon be a Reality with New Material (VIDEO)

Scientists may have made a major leap forward when it comes to robotics. They've created a new material that has the potential to robots similar to the ones featured in the movie, "Terminator 2," which could morph from a hard to a soft state.

The new material was created as part of the Chemical Robots program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In theory, robots created from this material could squeeze through tight spaces and then expand again to move around an area. This could be especially useful in search and rescue missions, or even when it comes to the medical field.

Yet actually creating the material wasn't easy. After all, the material needed to be able to exert a reasonable amount of force on its surroundings while still being flexible.

"You can't just create a bowl of Jell-O, because if the Jell-O has to manipulate an object, it would simply deform without applying significant pressure to the thing it was trying to move," said Anette Hosoi, one of the researchers and a professor at MIT, in a news release. "If you're trying to squeeze under a door, for example, you should opt for a soft state, but if you want to pick up a hammer or open a window, you need at least part of the machine to be rigid."

The researchers chose foam to work with when it came to creating a new material. They also included a wax coating, which could change from a hard outer shell to a soft, pliable surface with moderate heating. This heating could be accomplished by running a wire along each of the coated foam struts. This heating could also repair any damage that the wax sustained, which makes it self-healing.

While it's possible this material could be used for robots in the future, the researchers are still investigating other materials. Currently, the scientists are looking at unconventional materials, such as magnetorheological and electrorheological fluids, which are made out of a liquid with particles suspended inside. We could very well see Terminator 2-like robots in the future.

The findings are published in the journal Macromolecular Materials and Engineering.

Want to see more? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.