University of Maine developing wearable sensors that can repair themselves | Local News [Video]

ORONO — The University of Maine is working to develop wearable electronics that can repair themselves.

Attachable sensors are used in healthcare, robotics and more to collect information — like a patient’s heart rate.

University of Maine Assistant Professor of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Evan Wujcik and a team of students are working to make that technology more comfortable and last longer with a sensor that can repair itself like skin.

“Those polymer molecules want to be amongst themselves so much that when they’re severed and cut, they’ll actually wiggle back into each other,” said Wujcik.

Wujcik and his students have been working in the lab for over a year to find the right combination of materials to make the idea work.

The team has developed a prototype of the wearable sensor system, which can bend, twist and stretch up to 30 times its original size.

“We thought [the sensors] might also …