Scientists have developed a Robot that can travel to a black hole. Newton’s third law of motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This law represents a certain symmetry in nature: forces always occur in pairs, and one body cannot exert a force on another without experiencing a force itself. The law is relevant to human movement in flat, three-dimensional space, but in curved space, forces may vary and objects may move independently of gravity or friction.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology claim to have developed a robot that can navigate curved space devoid of colliding with any obstacles as a result. Zeb Rocklin, an assistant professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech, noted that to carefully investigate the motion in curved space, they allowed their object to change shape and move on the most basic curved surface, a sphere.
The researcher said, “We found that the expected effect, which was so counter-intuitive it was rejected by several physicists, actually occurred: as the robot changed its shape, it inched forward around the sphere in a way that could not be explained by exterior interactions.
A “swimmer” was put on a sphere with motors that could freely revolve to experiment. They then connected this system to a rotating shaft, supported by air bearings and bushings to reduce friction, so that the motors always travel on a sphere. The shaft alignment was also altered to take Earth’s gravity into account to reduce any residual force. The movie doesn’t show any particularly impressive movements from the robots, but even the smallest change could have a big impact, similar to how a small frequency shift caused by gravity proved crucial for the development of GPS systems.
According to the researchers, the foundations of how a space’s curvature can be exploited may one day allow vehicles to navigate across the incredibly curved region surrounding a black hole. Surely, this opens a chance to uncover many more discoveries since scientists have developed a robot that is capable of travelling inside a black hole.
