Revolutionizing Underwater Work with Sound: Researchers Develop Material to Move Objects Without Touch

Sound isn’t just for music or speech — it’s now being harnessed in exciting new ways, from mapping the seafloor to, believe it or not, moving objects underwater without ever touching them! Thanks to innovative advances in material science, researchers can now control objects in water remotely using specially designed structures called metamaterials.

What Are Metamaterials?

Metamaterials are composite materials engineered to have unique properties that aren’t found in nature. Their secret lies in their structure — often tiny, carefully designed patterns that influence how sound waves interact with them.

Dajun Zhang, a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently presented his pioneering work at the joint 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and the 25th International Congress on Acoustics. His team designed a metamaterial with a sawtooth pattern that can be targeted with precise sound waves to push, pull, or rotate objects in water, all without physical contact.

How Does It Work?

By carefully directing sound waves at the metamaterial, the researchers can exert forces that move attached objects in three dimensions — whether they’re floating on the water’s surface or fully submerged. Zhang’s work even included moving a model of Wisconsin’s beloved Badger, Bucky the Badger, to demonstrate the technique’s potential.

This technology could revolutionize underwater tasks, making it easier to manipulate equipment or perform delicate operations remotely. Beyond ocean adventures, it has exciting implications inside the human body, too — such as for precision surgery or targeted drug delivery in water-rich environments.

Overcoming Manufacturing Challenges

Creating these intricate underwater metamaterials isn’t easy. Conventional production methods struggle to achieve the necessary resolution or material properties — and they can be very costly. Zhang tackled this head-on by developing a new, low-cost fabrication method that achieves high resolution and the right material qualities, making underwater manipulation more accessible and scalable.

What’s Next?

Zhang is already working on smaller, more flexible versions of his metamaterial, aiming to expand its applications into medicine and underwater robotics. As he says, “Our research opens new opportunities for remote manipulation underwater and inside the body, bringing science fiction closer to reality.”

This exciting work is funded by the Human Frontier Science Program and is a collaborative effort between teams at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I²SysBio in Valencia, Spain, and the University of Technology Sydney in Australia.

Stay Tuned for More

For updates on this fascinating research and other breakthroughs, visit ASA’s conference website .