Transformers are starting to jump from film and into reality, but you’d have to look down to see them, not up. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have created the M-Blocks, little cube-shaped robots that can move and self-assemble, all without external moving parts.

The remote-controlled M-Blocks are incredible to watch, like multi-colored, miniature robotic puppies. The size of wooden alphabet blocks, they jump and spin, click together and fly off each other. The mechanism allowing their movement lies underneath their outer layer. Magnets are strategically placed to have the M-Blocks stick together, and each block has a tiny flywheel that can move up to 20,000 revolutions per minute.

MIT researchers believe these could be the precursors to the ultimate Transformers, with an infinite number of robots able to alter their shape depending on the needs of the situation. The researchers’ long-term goal is to miniaturize the technology and eventually turn the cubes into autonomous robots capable of decision-making. In this instance, they would be able to decide where they move and what shapes they would turn into.

“It’s one of these things that the community has been trying to do for a long time,” says Daniela Rus, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and director of CSAIL, speaking to MIT news. “We just needed a creative insight and somebody who was passionate enough to keep coming at it.”

As for the short-term, the research team recognizes the potential of the M-Blocks in their current size. They believe that a large number of these cubes could potentially repair buildings or bridges during emergency situations, assemble heavy objects or furniture and other like tasks.

A group of dolphins is called a pod; a group of crows is called a murder. Perhaps the word for a group of robots should be called an army? Either way, the MIT research team is in the process of creating 100 of the M-Blocks each with the ability to move in any direction. The team is also designing algorithms to guide them with the goal of having the cubes go from randomly moving around the floor to being able identify each other, gather together and autonomously transform into different forms and shapes such as chairs, tables and more.

“We want hundreds of cubes, scattered randomly across the floor, to be able to identify each other, coalesce, and autonomously transform into a chair, or a ladder, or a desk, on demand,” John Romanishin, one of the research scientists, said.