This is How You Get T-1000s, Isn't It?

Tuckerfan · Feb 26, 2025

Okay, it ain't liquid metal, but...

Scientists create a swarm of robots that acts like one material, mimics living systems

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden are pioneering a new approach to robotics by creating a collective of small robots that function like a smart material.

According to Matthew Devlin, a former doctoral researcher in the lab of UCSB mechanical engineering professor Elliot Hawkes and lead author of a paper published in Science, researchers have developed a method for robots to behave more like a material.
Self-assembling robots create dynamic material properties

Made up of small, disk-shaped autonomous robots resembling hockey pucks, the collective is designed to self-assemble into different shapes, adapting its material properties as needed. The research team focused on the challenge of creating a robotic material that is both stiff and strong while also capable of flowing into a new form when needed.

Instead of relying on external forces to change shape, robotic materials should ideally respond to internal signals, Hawkes explained, allowing them to take and maintain a form while selectively reconfiguring themselves when necessary.

The researchers found inspiration in the work of Otger Campas, a former UCSB professor and now director of the Physics of Life Excellence Cluster at TU Dresden, who studied how embryos develop their physical form. Embryonic tissues function as highly adaptive materials, capable of self-shaping, self-healing, and adjusting their structural properties over time.

His laboratory at UCSB revealed that embryos can shift between fluid and solid states, allowing them to shape themselves. This process, known in physics as rigidity transitions, enables cells to control the structural properties of tissues during development.

As an embryo develops, cells organize themselves to shape the body, forming distinct structures like hands and feet, as well as different textures such as bone and brain tissue. The researchers focused on three biological processes behind rigidity transitions: the active forces that cells apply to each other to move, the biochemical signals that coordinate their movements in space and time, and their ability to stick together, which gives the organism its final stiffness.
Moving and reshaping with force and coordination

In these robots, intracellular forces are translated into inter-unit tangential forces, thanks to eight motorized gears on each robot’s circular exterior. These gears enable them to move around and push off each other, even in tight spaces, the researchers explain.

Devlin further noted that in the robots, this capability is achieved through light sensors on top of each robot, equipped with polarized filters. When light is directed at these sensors, the polarization tells them which direction to spin their gears, guiding the robots to change shape. By exposing them to a constant light field, all the robots can align and adjust as needed, moving in unison.

In testing the robots, the researchers discovered that signal fluctuations – variations in the signals sent to the robots – were crucial for enabling them to form the necessary shapes and structures. Building on previous research showing that fluctuations in the forces generated by cells are key to transforming solid-like tissue into a fluid one, the team encoded similar force fluctuations into the robots.

These signal fluctuations allow the robot collective to change shape and strength using less power than if the signals were constantly on and the robots were always pushing against each other. The researchers also pointed out that such an unexpected discovery came during data collection on the robots’ behavior, and is crucial for designing robots that need to operate on limited power.
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Coloratura · Feb 27, 2025

Humans in the 1980s: "If we build adaptable robots that can kill us, robots are going to kill all of us."
Humans in the 2020s: "What if we built the adaptable killer robots and asked them to only kill certain humans? Surely that would be fine."

ed629 · Feb 27, 2025

I for one welcome our cybernetic overlords.

Bickendan · Mar 1, 2025

I thought I saw a net in the sky

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This is How You Get T-1000s, Isn't It?

Tuckerfan BMF

Coloratura Ginger, No!

ed629 Morally Inept Banned

Bickendan Custom Title Administrator Faceless Mook Writer

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This is How You Get T-1000s, Isn't It?

Tuckerfan BMF

Coloratura Ginger, No!

ed629 Morally Inept Banned

Bickendan Custom Title Administrator Faceless Mook Writer

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