MIT’s M-Block Robots Roll, Jump, and Flip to Form Structures

by Ryan Whitwam

We’ve seen engineers design some truly amazing robots that can walk, run, and even jump, but not all robots need to be so elaborate. MIT researchers have created a fleet of tiny robotic cubes that can move around and interact with each other autonomously. An individual “M-Block” robot is simple and not very useful, but if you bring the fleet together, they can link up to form new shapes and structures.

The M-Blocks were designed at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) under the supervision of professor and CSAIL Director Daniela Rus. The project started back in 2013 with the aim of designing a more scalable robotic system that doesn’t rely on complex movement mechanisms. The team started working with so-called “inertial forces” to move their 6-sided robots around, and that eventually led to the M-Blocks.

Each cube-shaped robot has a flywheel that moves at 20,000 revolutions per minute. The robot applies a brake to the flywheel when it needs to move, harnessing the angular momentum to roll and hop across a surface. Each side also has permanent magnets that help it connect to other M-Blocks, and small barcodes on the faces help the robots identify each other.