Somersaulting MIT cube robots can self-assemble
The blocks move thanks to a flywheel inside their bodies that can spin at a blistering 20,000 revolutions per minute and then can break straight down to zero in a blinding 10 milliseconds, said MIT roboticist Kyle Gilpin. When the flywheel suddenly stops, all the energy from that angular momentum transfers into the cube’s frame, causing it to flip.
The boxes have magnets on the edges that can grip their cube-mates, allowing one to flip around into a new configuration without breaking the connection.
Ultimately, the goal would be to make smaller, millimeter-sized versions of these robots, Rus said. And the bots should have a number of applications, from building temporary bridges after a collapse to probing a suspect pipe.
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