Reprogrammable materials selectively self-assemble
Researchers create a method for magnetically programming materials to make cubes that are very picky about what they connect with, enabling more-scalable self-assembly.
Origami robot folds itself up, crawls away
Prototype made almost entirely of printable parts demonstrates crucial capabilities of reconfigurable robots.
Surprisingly simple scheme for self-assembling robots
Small cubes with no exterior moving parts can propel themselves forward, jump on top of each other, and snap together to form arbitrary shapes.
How to make big things out of small pieces
Researchers invent a new approach to assembling big structures — even airplanes and bridges — out of small interlocking composite components.
The robotic equivalent of a Swiss army knife
Reconfigurable robot a step toward something that can become almost anything.
Self-sculpting sand
New algorithms could enable heaps of ‘smart sand’ that can assume any shape, allowing spontaneous formation of new tools or duplication of broken mechanical parts.
Shape-shifting robots
Self-folding sheets of a plastic-like material point the way to robots that can assume any conceivable 3-D structure.