A team of engineers at the University of California, San Diego, has developed a swimming robot that can heal itself.

The 2 cm long swimming robots are composed of three different layers: a conductive layer; a rigid and hydrophobic layer; and a magnetic nanoparticle layer. Additionally, the tail of the robot contains platinum. According to researchers, the platinum reacts to hydrogen peroxide and produces the bubbles that enable the robots to move.

Source: University of California, San Diego

In the lab, the engineers cut the robots into pieces but the tail of the swimming robot continued to swim due to its reaction with hydrogen peroxide. The tail continued to swim until magnetically reconnecting with its severed parts, thereby restoring the robot to its previous form. The robot even magnetically reconnected when cut into three pieces, according to the engineers.

The University of California, San Diego, team believes that the self-healing swimming robotic fish could be used for applications such as environmental monitoring and potentially to clean up dangerous waste in bodies of water.

To see how the robots reattach, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of the University of California, San Diego.