A squishy robot hand can sweat to cool itself down

The news: Robots are typically made of metal and motors, so they can easily overheat and stop working. To avoid that problem, researchers at Cornell University have created a soft robot hand that can cool itself down the same way we do—by sweating.
How it works: The hand is made up of three hollow 3D-printed fingers made from hydrogels. Each finger is filled with water and covered with a surface layer of micropores. The pores are closed at cool temperatures, but if they go above 86 F (30 °C), the surface layer expands, allowing the pores to open and “sweat” out the water, cooling the robot down. The fingers are three times more efficient than humans at sweating, the researchers say in a paper in Science Robotics.
Apart from being “ugh,” what’s it for? This approach could let robots operate for longer, and in environments where you can’t cool them down with fans or air conditioning units. However, there are downsides: there’s currently no way to top up the fluid levels, and the added moisture may degrade the robots’ ability to grip objects. And this robot is extremely basic right now.
Sign up here to our daily newsletter The Download to get your dose of the latest must-read news from the world of emerging tech.
Deep Dive
Artificial intelligence
Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build
“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”
ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it
The narrative around cheating students doesn’t tell the whole story. Meet the teachers who think generative AI could actually make learning better.
Deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has quit Google
Hinton will be speaking at EmTech Digital on Wednesday.
The future of generative AI is niche, not generalized
ChatGPT has sparked speculation about artificial general intelligence. But the next real phase of AI will be in specific domains and contexts.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.