Remember T1000 from Terminator 2? Scientists are planning something similar but with a cuter name – SMARTLET
Self-assembling ‘living technology’ is now within reach, thanks to researchers who have developed a form of microbotic electronic units called SMARTLETs that can behave like biological cells.
The team at the Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes (MAIN) built these small modules with silicon chips between the folds. These SMARTLETs can be encoded with the information to form complex structures – which work much like how you imagine the T1000 from Terminator 2 might reconstruct itself. Of course, Robert Patrick’s terrifying feats will remain fiction, but one day we could see these SMARTLETs become the components that go into, say, the best smartphones or the best business laptops.
They rely on matching physical barcodes to connect fluidly, demonstrating the ability to learn so they can improve their own performance during construction, and could soon be able to self-assemble into complex artificial organisms.
One step closer to the wonders of ‘living technology’
‘Living technology’ is an area of technology in which researchers attempt to create systems and structures that reflect the way biological systems function, deriving utility and properties from lifelike properties.
The idea was proposed twenty years ago and has made great progress in recent years, according to the team at MAIN’s article in Advanced materials, thanks to microbiotic flexible electronics. This latest advancement falls under the category of microelectronic morphogenesis – the creation of form under microelectronic control.
The chiplets, which resemble biological cells in function and size, are aware of the state of assembly and potential errors, meaning they can adapt to any problems, repair and make corrections mid-assembly.
They can also lead to disassembly and perform many functions, including power harvesting, antenna formation, material redistribution, and others.
What makes these modules so impressive is the fact that they can assemble, disassemble and sort themselves so they can be recycled effectively. They can be reconfigured and redeployed in different artificial organisms. If they are damaged, they can also repair themselves effectively.
The study’s authors say this technology could bring us one step closer to realizing a vision of fully sustainable technology, with the reuse of components made from such modules that can be reprogrammed and remapped as building blocks.