Robotic 'gray goo'

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time a way to make a robot composed of many loosely coupled components, or 'particles.' Unlike swarm or modular robots, each component is simple, and has no individual address or identity. In their system, which the researchers call a 'particle robot,' each particle can perform only uniform volumetric oscillations (slightly expanding and contracting), but cannot move independently.

from Engineering News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2Jqzyj5