MIT's FloatForm robot boats self-assemble into bridges on water, published in Nature
lukas_m_ziegler · x · 2026-09-17
FloatForm, from MIT CSAIL and the Senseable City Lab (published in Nature), uses fleets of 21 cm robot boats that self-assemble into physically connected structures on water. Key details: an origami-inspired auxetic structure driven by a single servo with alternating-polarity permanent magnets, closing 10-15 cm gaps; power is only drawn to latch/unlatch; and coordination is distributed — each boat shares position data with neighbors and handles its own collision avoidance.
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