Programmable Matter – 3D Catoms

I enjoyed watching this presentation by one of the creators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXhELbJhgoU

However, don't see any evidence that they have physical prototypes of multi-catom swarms. Seems like they're more interested in the controls side of it, which is itself a very difficult problem.

I imagine physical constraints (such as the amount of power needed to engage the device's electromagnets) would render real constructions impossible. I'd loved to be proved wrong, though.

> Once a part is digitally designed, the information is transferred to the Catoms, which then take the shape of the part, turning into a physical prototype made of tiny bots.

This is basically the microbots from Big Hero 6

Instead of a house full of furniture, a pile of catoms that splits off and goes to form a chair, table, couch, bed, ottoman, whatever, just in time. Specialized upholstery catoms form surfaces, etc. When you move to a new home the catoms reconfigure for travel and follow along.

The Terminator 2 T-1000 was a kind of fine grained catom bot.

Incredible YouTube videos on this page. Two videos, four seconds long, each showing one tiny thing moving a teeny bit. Hilarious!

This looks quite interesting, but I need some evidence it's not vaporware.

They should make them paperclip shaped, so that it would be convenient to take notes. They could project the UI on paper.

Self assembling robotic materials feel so far away, yet so close to happening. I'm sure it will be a long time before anything like this is practical, but it seems like we could be so much more efficient with that level of reuse. I'm not as optimistic about the waste produced by dead units, but hopefully we get our ewaste programs under control by then.

Around 10-15 years ago I read that Intel had a large somewhat secretive department working on exactly this idea, I believe the article described it as self-assembling sand or goo.

Anyone know what became of it?

From just the video it seems like is super alpha 0.1

It reminds me an idea I had, but left in a drawer. I couldn't find out how much it costs. Could someone find this info ?

First problem, energy. Second problem, gravity. Third problem, dirt. Don't tell me, they are stuck at the first one.

I think this page is a few years old