MIT's Self-Assembling Robot Cubes Can Jump And Flip

MIT has announced the development of self-assembling robotic cubes. The cubes can climb over and around each other, jump in the air, and roll across the ground. The robots are now able to communicate with each other, a development that has taken six years to achieve. The communication system the robots use is a simple barcode-like system on each face of the block.

That barcode allows the modules to identify each other. The autonomous fleet includes 16 blocks, and they can accomplish simple tasks like forming a line, following arrows or tracking light. Each of the cubes is called an M-Block and has a flywheel that moves at 20,000 rpm. Using angular momentum when the flywheel is braked. On each edge and on every face are permanent magnets that let any two cubes attract each other.

The team envisions the M-Block robots being used for disaster response in the future. They say you could have a bunch of blocks build a temporary staircase to gain access to the roof of a building. MIT Professor and CSAIL Director Daniela Rus says that M stands for motion, magnet, and magic.

She says that the cubes can move by jumping, giving them motion. Magnets come in that the cubes connect to each other using magnets. Magic is because people looking at the cubes see no moving parts.

Previous modular robots used modules with small robotic arms for movement. Those types of robots require a lot of coordination for the simplest of movements. One example is multiple commands to hop. Each M-Block module can move in four cardinal directions when placed on any of its six faces. That gives 24 different movement directions. In testing, the team says that 90% of the M-Blocks succeeded in getting into a line.