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LiveScience
LiveScience
Andrea Saravia Pérez

Swarm of 30 robots can 'flow like water' and harden up to support the weight of a person

Robots Live Science UC Santa Barbara UCSB
Illustration of the circular robots melting from a cube formation. Shows these robots can behave like a liquid.

Swarms of hive mind-like robots can be induced to behave more like a material, new research has shown.

The robots in question are (mostly) cylindrical, with a diameter of just 2.75 inches (70 millimeters). The researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden used 3D printing technology to manufacture the pieces from polylactic acid.

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