---
title: "Watch This Remarkable Robot Transform Itself to Tackle Various Tasks"
description: "Cornell researchers created a shape-shifting robot that knows when it should reconfigure itself to complete various tasks."
date: "2018-11-01"
modified: "2018-11-01"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/shape-shifting-robot-cornell"
categories:
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "cornell university"
  - "robot"
  - "the digest"
---

# Watch This Remarkable Robot Transform Itself to Tackle Various Tasks

![Cornell researchers created a shape-shifting robot that knows when it should reconfigure itself to complete various tasks.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/shape-shifting-robot-cornell.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Cornell University\</em\>*

## Adapt, React, Readapt, Apt

Robots have never been more advanced than they are today, but they aren't terribly adaptable — most are capable of completing just one or two [specific tasks](<https://singularityhub.com/2017/12/07/why-the-most-useful-robots-still-dont-look-much-like-us/>).

In an effort to create a more capable robot, researchers from Cornell University [designed one](<http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/10/shape-shifting-modular-robot-more-sum-its-parts>) that's essentially many smaller robots stuck together. This modular formation means the robot can [transform](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/dragon-flying-robot-change-shape>) into whatever shape best suits the task at hand.

https://youtu.be/eJsnG9DZjgM

## Metabot

What makes this shape-shifting robot remarkable is that it doesn't need anyone telling it when to change shape — it figures that out on its own using a system of cameras, sensors, and AI software.

The Cornell team describes the shape-shifting robot in a [paper](<http://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/3/23/eaat4983>) published Wednesday in the journal *Science Robotics*, but to get a real feel for its capabilities, we suggest checking out the video above.

## Like a Boss

Watch it and you'll see the robot navigate a makeshift office environment that looks like a box fort you might have built as a child. The robot navigates around what seems like whatever crap the Cornell researchers had lying around the lab — a water filter, a stool — to retrieve objects and place them in a designated drop-off zone.

If the bot decides its current shape isn't ideal for completing a task, it switches it up — various parts detach and reattach themselves to the robot's main body. This allows it to navigate narrow spaces or even inchworm itself up a set of stairs.

Let's just hope the researchers building the next generations of these transforming robots model them after the Autobots and not the Decepticons.

**READ MORE:** [Shape-Shifting Modular Robot Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts](<http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/10/shape-shifting-modular-robot-more-sum-its-parts>) \[Cornell University\]

***More on adaptable robots: [This Floating Robot Dragon Can Change Shape Mid-Flight](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/dragon-flying-robot-change-shape>)***

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)