Using agglomerations of worms as a biological model, researchers are designing mechanical devices that one day may be able to form and re-form into different shapes, just like the wrigglers. (From 2021)
Ozkan-Aydin’s worm gym included tiny levers and poles that allowed her to measure some of the forces used by two or three “puller” worms that were capable of moving a 15-worm blob across a surface. Some worms were stronger than others, but they became lazy and stopped working as she increased the temperature in the container. She also observed the worms moving as a group away from bright lights, toward colder and darker areas.
In fact, Bhamla says he first encountered the worms while walking by a dried-out pond on the Stanford University campus in 2017 as a graduate student. He was curious about what kind of life might return to a drought-stricken lake. “It had just rained, and I was excited because California had a lot of drought,” Bhamla remembers.
By studying these worms in the lab, the Georgia Tech team was also able to construct simple mechanical analogs of the worm blobs. Using the worm behavior as a blueprint, Ozkan-Aydin devised six 3D-printed robots, each about 3 to 4 inches long. Then, they could be programmed to perform various movements and observed as they tangled with each other.
Deblais says the Georgia Tech team’s experiments with both the worms and their robotic analogs might lead to new kinds of devices or substances that can be programmed to squeeze into tight spaces, just like a sci-fi blob monster sneaking from one room to another. “If you place these worms or the bots in an area, you can do a lot of things,” Deblais says. “In a hostile environment or war zone, they could flow through constrictions in buildings or over a rough landscape.
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