Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden have developed a swarm of 30 robots that can act like a material. The cylindrical robots are made from polylactic acid and feature magnets, yellow gears, and a center with a ring of gears. These components enable the robots to “flow” like water and harden to support the weight of a person.
The robots’ behavior is inspired by embryonic tissue cells, which can push and pull against each other to form complex structures. The team has successfully recreated this phenomenon in their robots using 3D printing technology. Eight motorized gears enable intracellular forces to become tangential forces that move each unit, allowing the robots to push, pull, and move around one another.
The researchers aimed to create a material that could be rigid when needed but also adapt to assume a softer structure. They were able to achieve this by fluctuating the magnitude of the forces applied by the gears. The team’s experiments demonstrate the robots’ ability to selectively flow themselves into new shapes, similar to embryonic cells.
In one notable demonstration, the researchers stood on top of the robots, which supported their weight and displayed a significant increase in strength. This finding highlights the robots’ capacity for phase transitions between solid and liquid states. The team plans to further study the scalability of the system and explore the properties of active matter.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/technology/robotics/swarm-of-30-robots-can-flow-like-water-and-harden-up-to-support-the-weight-of-a-person