Robotics professor Daniela Rus and Kyle Gilpin a research scientist at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed the first true self assembling robot. M-Blocks as they’re now called are little cubes that have no external moving parts, allowing them to move freely on top of each other, on the ground and even leap through the air.
On the sides of the cube are cleverly arranged permanent magnets that allow any two cubes to attach to each other. Daniela Rus made the following statement regarding their new robot
“It’s one of these things that the [modular-robotics] community has been trying to do for a long time. We just needed a creative insight and somebody who was passionate enough to keep coming at it — despite being discouraged.”
Here is the video demonstrating the cubes in action and how they work
