Reconfigurable Self-Assembling Robots: MIT M-Block

Although  Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 is the most iconic Terminator, the different liquid metal terminators are amazing and marked a keystone in movie special effects. The T-1000 from Terminator 2: judgment day, T-X (Kristanna Lokken) from Terminator 3: Rise of the machines, and the recent Rev-9 from Terminator Dark fate, all of them got their special moment.

Since those terminators are made of liquid metal, they can take the shape and appearance of anyone or anything it comes in contact with. Everybody remembers the scenes when T-1000 (terminator 2) melts in the helicopter, or when T-X (Terminator 3) reshapes her boobs. The idea of a robot that automatically reshapes to any shape is great, and it may become reality sooner than expected.

The Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) from the MIT gave an important step towards such goal. However, they are not using any metal liquid. They developed the so called M-block

The M-Block

The M-Blocks are cubes with no external moving parts. Nonetheless, they’re able to climb over and around one another, leap through the air, roll across the ground, and even move while suspended upside down from metallic surfaces.  

Inside each M-Block is a flywheel that can reach speeds of 20,000 revolutions per minute; when the flywheel is braked, it imparts its angular momentum to the cube. On each edge of an M-Block, and on every face, are cleverly arranged permanent magnets that allow any two cubes to attach to each other. Thus, the M-Blocks may be arranged in any shape

Currently the M-Blocks receive commands via a radio signal. Future research will deal with automating such task. The commands and algorithms will be loaded into each M-Block, so that several hundreds of M-Blocks scattered randomly across the floor will be to identify each other, coalesce, and autonomously transform into a chair, or a ladder, or a desk, or any other shape. The following video shows the M-Blocks and an explanation from the developers.

In this video you can see a more detailed explanation.

References & further reading

Surprisingly simple scheme for self-assembling robots

Terminator self-assembling cube robots revealed  by MIT