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Researchers have developed small robots that can work together as a collective that changes shape and even shifts between solid and \u201cfluid-like\u201d states \u2014 a concept that should be familiar to anyone still haunted by nightmares of the T-1000 robotic assassin<\/a> from \u201cTerminator 2.\u201d<\/p>\n A team led by Matthew Devlin of UC Santa Barbara described this work in a paper recently published in Science<\/a>, writing that the vision of \u201ccohesive collectives of robotic units that can arrange into virtually any form with any physical properties \u2026 has long intrigued both science and fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n Otger Camp\u00e0s, a professor at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, told Ars Technica<\/a> that the team was inspired by tissues in embryos to try and design robots with similar capabilities. These robots have motorized gears that allow them to move around within the collective, magnets so they can stay attached, and photodetectors that allow them to receive instructions from a flashlight with a polarization filter.<\/p>\n Camp\u00e0s said reality remains \u201cfar from the Terminator thing,\u201d with size and power challenges remaining. The researchers\u2019 robots were slightly more than 5 centimeters in diameter, though the goal is to get them down to 1 or 2 centimeters, or even smaller.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n