[imagesource: flickr]

Well, this is NOT going to end well.

Scientists at Soft Machines Lab at Carnegie Mellon University have managed to design a robot that can shift between solid and liquid states. Science jargon aside, this simply means that the robot can liquefy itself to ooze through your burglar bars and then solidify to wrap its cold metal fingers around your very human neck.

All right, so that particular scenario might not be what the engineers had in mind when they created the robots, but we bet they thought of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie at some point during the designing process.

As reported by Vice, Magnetoactive phase transitional matter (MPTM) robots make use of magnetic fields to control shape and movement, and have been called a breakthrough in medical technology as scientists look at uses for targeted drug delivery, circuit assembly, or even the creation of universal screws.

Soft robots are typically much more malleable than their hard-bodied counterparts, but the tradeoff is that they are not as strong, fast, or easily controlled as solid machines.

Making use of the metal Gallium, engineers have managed to imbed tiny magnetic particles that can be controlled with magnetic fields.

‘We uniquely combine the high mechanical strength, load capacity, and fast locomotion speed of the solid phase with excellent morphological adaptability (elongation, splitting, and merging) in the liquid phase.”

Sure sounds like the T-1000 to us.

Researchers have thus far managed to get the robots to solder circuit boards, mould themselves into universal screws, overcome obstacle courses and remove objects from a dummy stomach. The robot was also able to shape itself into a LEGO figurine before liquifying and passing through the bars of a cage. Have a look at the video below:

You can read their published study here if you are a science nerd or just prepping for the upcoming doomsday.

Scientists will continue to study the robots with the hopes of creating the next generation of medical technologies that could be used to deliver medication directly to specific organs or remove harmful objects from within the body.

[source: vice & youtube/newscientist}