New robots could take on exciting new forms and applications, with each component of the machine able to react and act on its own, according to a review published today in Science.

The materials making up a robot are themselves are becoming more autonomous: sensing, calculating and reacting to their surroundings without any outside computer power. This means that, instead of connecting sensors in materials to a separate computer with wires, all of these functions will be housed in the material itself. The idea, says Nikolaus Correll, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and one of the study authors, is that each material has many millions of parts that calculate their own actions based on local stimuli. Then the parts communicate with one another, so that the overall system is cohesive.

Materials that were recently cutting-edge, like small sensors and Arduino controllers, are now easy to find, says Correll. "The availability of the tools breeds participation—an average person can buy interesting polymers and use a laser cutter, and they couldn't have done that so easily before." Correll has seen this first-hand; his first-year engineering students have come up with some truly inspired creations, from a cell phone case that changes color to a skateboard that can fold up when it's not in use. "If they can do this, maybe PhD students can do more challenging projects that were even more impossible before," he says.