Liquid metal droplet solves maze.

Soft Matter

Unconventional Computing Laboratory, Department of Computer Science and Creative Technologies, University of the West of England, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK.

Published: February 2020

A room temperature liquid metal features a melting point around room temperature. We use liquid metal gallium due to its non-toxicity. A physical maze is a connected set of Euclidean domains separated by impassable walls. We demonstrate that a maze filled with sodium hydroxide solution is solved by a gallium droplet when direct current is applied between start and destination loci. During the maze solving the droplet stays compact due to its large surface tension, navigates along lines of the highest electrical current density due its high electrical conductivity, and goes around corners of the maze's corridors due to its high conformability. The droplet maze solver has a long life-time due to the negligible vapour tension of liquid gallium and its corrosion resistance and its operation enables computational schemes based on liquid state devices.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9sm01806aDOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

liquid metal
12
room temperature
8
temperature liquid
8
liquid
5
maze
5
droplet
4
metal droplet
4
droplet solves
4
solves maze
4
maze room
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!