Swimmers Heal on the Move Following Catastrophic Damage

Herein, we describe the development of 2D self-healing small-scale swimmers capable of autonomous propulsion and "on-the-fly" structural recovery in large containers. Incorporation of magnetic Nd₂Fe₁₄B microparticles in specialized printed strips results in rapid reorientation and reattachment of the moving tail to its complementary broken static piece to restore the original swimmer structure and propulsion behavior. The swimmers display functional recovery independent of user input. Measurements of the magnetic hysteresis and fields were used to assess the behavior of the healing mechanism in real swimming situations. Damage position and multiple magnetic strip patterns have been examined and their influence upon the recovery efficiency has been compared. Owing to its versatility, fast response, and simplicity the new self-healing strategy represents an important step toward the development of new "on-the-fly" repairing strategies for small-scale swimmers and robots.