<p>What if robots could reassemble themselves at will? The liquid metal cyborg in Terminator was terrifyingly useful. It could look like anyone, repair shotgun blasts, even turn its hand into a murderous icepick. And then of course, you've got Transformers, wherein alien robots morph from cars and trucks into giant humanoid fighting machines.</p><p>It isn't liquid metal nor is it extraterrestrial, but MIT's John Romanishin, Daniela Rus, and Kyle Gilpin think they've found a promising precursor to a similar technology.</p><p>By building simple, independent modules that can separate and recombine at will, you can design a robot of flexible functionality. Such modular robots have been around for a long time. Indeed, we've covered plenty in the past. But none are as simple as MIT's M-Blocks, and it's that simplicity that's got folks excited.</p><p>The first thing you'll notice about M-Blocks is how they move. All locomotion is self-containedthere are no external moving parts. Each block contains a 20,000 RPM flywheel which imparts angular momentum to each cube. They can move across the floor, roll over each other, and even leap about like a Mexican jumping bean.</p><p><a href="http://singularityhub.com/2013/10/09/mits-m-blocks-a-new-class-of-robot-cubes-that-self-assemble/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/10/self-assembling-robots">MIT&#039;s self-assembling robot cubes offer whiffs of Optimus Prime</a> (Wired.co.uk)</p><p><a href="http://www.dvice.com/2013-10-8/robot-blocks-magically-turn-themselves-absolutely-anything">Robot blocks magically turn themselves into absolutely anything</a> (DVICE)</p><p><a href="http://robohub.org/mit-deploys-swarm-of-self-assembling-robot-cubes-automaton/">MIT deploys swarm of self-assembling robot cubes | Automaton</a> (Robohub)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dTdfIutnW_N6g5MfOtFJ19uBwZhJM&ned=us">15 additional articles.</a></p>