--- description: A thousand-robot swarm created by Harvard researchers can self-assemble into different shapes title: Watch a Swarm of 1,000 'Kilobots' Assemble Into Different Shapes image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Innovation](/tag/innovation/) ## Innovation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch a Swarm of 1,000 'Kilobots' Assemble Into Different Shapes by [Ryan Sager](/author/ryan-sager/) ## Ryan Sager Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 22, 2014 5:29 PM CUT by [Ryan Sager](/author/ryan-sager/) ## Ryan Sager Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 22, 2014 5:29 PM CUT From the [editor’s summary](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6198/795 "undefined") in _Science_: --- > “” --- [This](http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTUxMzMwNjEzOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNzA4MDg3.%5FV1%5FSY208%5FSX485%5FAL%5F.jpg "undefined") may still be some time away. But I wouldn’t get too comfortable with human civilization in its current form. (via [IEEE Spectrum](http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/a-thousand-kilobots-self-assemble "undefined")) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3418779/watch-a-swarm-of-1000-kilobots-assemble-into-different-shapes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3418779/watch-a-swarm-of-1000-kilobots-assemble-into-different-shapes/"},"headline":"Watch a Swarm of 1,000 'Kilobots' Assemble Into Different Shapes","datePublished":"2014-09-22T17:29:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:20:22.699Z","description":"A thousand-robot swarm created by Harvard researchers can self-assemble into different shapes","url":"https://time.com/3418779/watch-a-swarm-of-1000-kilobots-assemble-into-different-shapes/","keywords":["Innovation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Sager","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-sager/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3418779/watch-a-swarm-of-1000-kilobots-assemble-into-different-shapes/","name":"Watch a Swarm of 1,000 'Kilobots' Assemble Into Different Shapes"}}]}] ```