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Research out of Columbia University presents a compelling new paradigm in which robots effectively consume one another to create new and larger shapes. The work, published in the latest edition of Science Advances, outlines a process the team is referring to as “robot metabolism,” where in one system integrates the other’s components on the fly.

The researchers are framing the process as a move toward a more biologically inspired lifecycle.

"True autonomy means robots must not only think for themselves but also physically sustain themselves," says Columbia’s Philippe Martin Wyder, who serves as the report’s co-author. "Just as biological life absorbs and integrates resources, these robots grow, adapt, and repair using materials from their environment or from other robots."

The work was performed on a Truss Link, a modular robot held together by magnetic joins. This design affords the system a great range of movement, with which it can contort itself into vastly different shapes.

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In additional to increasing the system's mass, new components can serve different functions, like the example of a 3D tetrahedron that increased its downhill walking speed by 67%, courtesy of a new “walking stick.” The robots can also “heal” by swapping damaged components out for new ones.

Wyder points to disaster recovery and space exploration as two potential specialized  fields for these shape shifting systems. “Ultimately,” he adds, “it opens up the potential for a world where AI can build physical structures or robots just as it today writes or rearranges the words in your email."