If they can figure out how to wirelessly power the cubes, or allow connected cubes to power each other via conductivity (perhaps at the cube edges), then the self-assembly of the bridge at the scale they're aiming for makes much more sense.<p>Hitting on the flywheel as the core mechanism for locomotion was amazing.
People 5 centuries from now will look into 20th and 21st century robotics forays in much the same way as we look at Babbage or Heron's steam-engine. Clever, perhaps ingenious, but hopeless with current technology.
Ok, that is the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Love the comment that they haven't taken to heart the Replicator storyline from SG-1.<p>The idea of exploiting the inverse square law to promote control over positioning is pure genius.
This is a great demo. However I wonder, with one flywheel, they should only be able to rotate the individual robots along a single plane? ( And I am somewhat curious, what collective motion of more than one robot looks like. )