Self-Assembling Robots

Self-assembling robots have always always been a sci-fi milestone that science in the real world could never really achieve.

One team at MIT has achieved just that, a group of robots that work together to reconfigure themselves. They are called M-Blocks and although they are nothing like what you’d see in Hollywood they are a critical first step in this area of development. Each unit in the set of cubes is equipped with the same hardware and functions the same as the others, and they work using cleverly placed magnets. With four magnets of each face of a cube they can attached their flat surfaces together, but there is also a beveled magnet on each of the corners. A component called a “flywheel” creates a rotational force inside the cube and when it is braked the rotational force transfers to the cube causing it to swing on  one of the beveled corners, effectively changing positions.

The overall hope of the researchers is to one day be able to pour out a pile of M-Blocks with a pre-programmed design of say a chair or a ladder and have them automatically seek one another and assemble.

To read more about M-Blocks, click here –

http://video.mit.edu/watch/small-cubes-that-self-assemble-25913/