1884 - Replicators are coming!!!

Remember the Replicators from Stargate SG-1?

Metallic cubes that could assemble themselves into bugs then attack and kill people? Science fiction right? Wonder if anything like that could ever really happen? Probably not..... oh oh.

From an article in Scientific American...

Dynamically self-assembling robots would certainly be more versatile than those preassembled in a lab or factory. ... One approach to building such robots would be creating intelligent modules that could gather together, morphing into the shape laid out by their programming (picture the form-shifting T-1000 in Terminator 2).

Here's some video...



Despite the challenges, the beauty of the project is that the cubes could be used to rapidly create objects or even prototype devices. Imagine using the smart cubes to someday replace a broken serpentine belt under the hood of a car in an emergency. From the side of the road a person could duct tape the belt together and then place it in a bag or box of smart cubes. After the car is repaired with a new belt, the magnets of the temporary bot belt would be turned off and the cubes would separate, ready to morph into something completely different the next time around.

Or maybe you would fall into the bag and a new you would come out.