As the approach toward robotics in the science community has evolved over time, researchers are finding ever-more-clever ways to manipulate the physical structures and unique locomotive abilities of artificially intelligent constructs.

One particularly revolutionary new take on the modern robot is called the M-Block, a modular robot in the shape of a cube that works with an array of identical blocks to build ever-changing structures in any number of shapes.

See also: 14 Robotics Breakthroughs From the Past Decade

Developed by John Romanishin, a research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, along with several colleagues, each M-Block moves thanks to an internal flywheel that can turn at up to 20,000 revolutions per minute. Once the flywheel stops in a pre-programmed direction, the momentum of the shift moves the block in that direction.

Because the M-Block has no outside moving parts, its internal locomotive dynamic makes the robot appear as if it’s being pushed by some invisible force.

On the M-Block’s exterior are a series of magnets, eight on each side of the cube, and a cylindrical magnet on each edge. This series of magnets allow each block to easily attach itself to another, regardless of the vertical or horizontal position of the blocks.

The combination of the flywheel-generated motion along with the magnetic connections allows sets of M-Blocks to constantly transform into a wide array of shapes of varying height and intricacy.

In the future, the team envisions significantly smaller versions of the self-assembling blocks that would work together so seamlessly that to the naked eye the collection of miniature blocks would look like liquid steel (think Terminator 2).

Until then, the team is working on building 100 hundred of the M-Blocks to explore the broader possibilities of how the current version of the robots can be used outside of the lab.

BONUS: Robots at CES 2014

Robots at CES 2014

Image: MIT