{"id":265515,"date":"2024-11-28T21:14:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T21:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/28\/the-way-cheerios-stick-together-has-inspired-a-new-kind-of-robot\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:10:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:10:19","slug":"the-way-cheerios-stick-together-has-inspired-a-new-kind-of-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/28\/the-way-cheerios-stick-together-has-inspired-a-new-kind-of-robot\/","title":{"rendered":"The way Cheerios stick together has inspired a new kind of robot"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A robot inspired by Cheerios releasing alcohol fuel with a fluorescent dye<\/p>\n

Jackson K. Wilt et al. 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The same phenomena that let beetles float across ponds and cause Cheerios to cluster\u00a0<\/strong>together in your cereal bowl can be harnessed to make tiny floating robots.<\/p>\n

One of these, the Marangoni effect<\/a>, arises when a fluid with a lower surface tension rapidly spreads out across the surface of a fluid with higher surface tension. This effect is exploited by Stenus<\/em> beetles, which have evolved to zip across ponds by secreting a substance called stenusin, as well as soap-powered toy boats.<\/p>\n

To investigate how this could be used by engineers,\u00a0Jackson Wilt<\/a> at Harvard University and his colleagues 3D-printed<\/a> round, plastic pucks around a centimetre in diameter. Inside each was an air chamber for buoyancy and a tiny fuel tank containing alcohol, which has a lower surface tension than water, in concentrations from 10 to 50 per cent. The alcohol gradually leaks out from the puck, propelling it across the surface of the water.<\/p>\n

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