Meet The Group of Mini Robots That Comes Together to Form a “Liquid That Thinks”


By: Jeff Stewart  |   December 24th, 2012   |   Gadgets, Living, News

Who can forget the morphing of tiny fictional robots shown in the famous “Terminator” films. These illusory robots surprised the audience by taking the shape of different things after coming together.

 

Now in our non-movie reality we are not too far away from practically seeing such small robots in our daily lives that can come together to form different shapes. As assistant professor Nikolaus Correll of University of Colorado Boulder and his team of computer science researchers have developed a group of 20 such small robots, which they have named ‘droplets’.

 

This group of small robots are spherical in shape and are as big as a ping-pong ball. When all of them come together they form a “liquid that thinks” says Correll. These mini robots are able to do so because of their intelligent design that enables them to assemble with each other and take different shapes.

 

According to Correll this group of mini robots are developed by following the same principle that is used in the human cells and with this kind of intelligent technology there is no limit, as it can be used to create virtually anything.

 

As he said, “Every living organism is made from a swarm of collaborating cells. Perhaps some day, our swarms will colonize space where they will assemble habitats and lush gardens for future space explorers”

 

Correll and his research team want to use these ‘droplets’ for variety of purposes in the future, which would not limit them to just forming different shapes, but these mini robots would also be released to perform different tasks such as containing an oil spill and much more.

 

In addition to this, Correll and company also expects to develop more creative design so these droplets could assemble together to form more complex shapes such as forming parts of an aircraft or big space telescope.

 

Source: MashableDailyGalaxy

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