MIT designd tiny inchworm-like robots to build space settlements on Mars and homes on Earth

From space settlements to airplanes and homes on Earth --scientists have developed a new category of robots that could change the way we build high-performance structures. The V-shaped machines, called Bipedal Isotropic Lattice Locomoting Explorers (or BILL-E), have two miniature arms that erect structures piece by piece. These appendages allow robots to move around like inchworms, opening and closing their bodies in order to travel from one spot to the next. The BILL-E robots were developed by a team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which foresee these tiny robots designing everything from space settlements on Mars to airplanes and homes on Earth. Professor Neil Gershenfeld in MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms said'What's at the heart of this is a new kind of robotics, that we call relative robots.'