Self-assembling robots are here (sort of)

An MIT senior named John Romanishin came up with an idea for self-assembling robots in the form of little cubes. When he brought the idea to his teacher, she said it couldn't be done. So he proved to her that he can indeed create them. Then she brought the idea to the the attention of a colleague. His response was that this could not be done. So they proved it to him. Now the three have joined forces to create these self-assembling robots -- and they work.

If you like this sort of thing, here's a link. And here's an excerpt from the article:

In ongoing work, the MIT researchers are building an army of 100 cubes, each of which can move in any direction, and designing algorithms to guide them. "We want hundreds of cubes, scattered randomly across the floor, to be able to identify each other, coalesce, and autonomously transform into a chair, or a ladder, or a desk, on demand," Romanishin says.

Coming soon to a reality near you.

In ongoing work, the MIT researchers are building an army of 100 cubes, each of which can move in any direction, and designing algorithms to guide them. "We want hundreds of cubes, scattered randomly across the floor, to be able to identify each other, coalesce, and autonomously transform into a chair, or a ladder, or a desk, on demand," Romanishin says.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-surprisingly-simple-scheme-self-assembling-robots.html#jCp