Ceiling robots can reconfigure room lights and curtains

Swarms of small robots rolling around on the ceiling can reconfigure rooms by moving hanging curtains or lights around – or store and then drop small objects such as keys and balls to humans below. "When you look up at the ceiling, it is unutilised space for these robotics technologies," says Ken Nakagaki. Nakagaki and his colleagues at the University of Chicago modified Toio consumer robots from Sony and attached magnets to them.