A host of ‘smarticles’ could give soldiers shape-shifting robots for future missions

[I]f a promising Army project proves out, a future soldier might deploy a host of “shape-shifting” particles that form themselves into whatever they need to accomplish the mission. That would include a robotic swarm that could become its own bridge to cross a river before reforming into another shape for the next phase of the mission, one official said....Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Northwestern University have taken a new approach to robot building, using “smarticles” that could lead to new ways for robots to move, according to an Army release. “People have been interested in making a certain kind of swarm robots that are composed of other robots,” said Dan Goldman, a physics professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. “These structures could be reconfigured on demand to meet specific needs by tweaking their geometry.”