Many times, we have seen different robots transforming, mimicking our imaginary friends from the movies. It is not surprising that although they are cool to watch, we know there is a long way to go to make it a truly adaptable reality.

Carnegie Mellon University has done some work on a different shape shifting mechanism…or so called robot swarms. First of all, this is a lot smaller and more realistic than simply watching a transformer toy powered and programmed to act without external force. In addition, this goes down to the nitty griddy of what the vision is. You see, in this case, they are making separate pieces come together by a magnetic force and integrate with each other. I do not want to attempt to explain it, since the video shows both an example plus provides a intriguing explanation.

After watching the video the first time, I realized this is not necessarily for transformers alone. It could be combined into many of our electronic products, so in the future, additional pieces could be added on and adapt to each other. This may be far fetched, but what could you see this used for?

Via: Ubergizmo