# Topics > Multi-systems > Smart environment >  Milli-Motein, chain of programmable matter with a 1 cm pitch, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

## Airicist

Milli-Motein (Millimeter-Scale Motorized Protein)

Developer - Center for Bits and Atoms

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## Airicist

(Tiny) Reconfigurable Robots at MIT 

Published on Nov 30, 2012




> The device doesn't look like much: a caterpillar-sized assembly of metal rings and strips resembling something you might find buried in a home-workshop drawer. But the technology behind it, and the long-range possibilities it represents, are quite remarkable.
> 
> The little device is called a milli-motein — a name melding its millimeter-sized components and a motorized design inspired by proteins, which naturally fold themselves into incredibly complex shapes. This minuscule robot may be a harbinger of future devices that could fold themselves up into almost any shape imaginable.
> 
> The device was conceived by Neil Gershenfeld, head of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, visiting scientist Ara Knaian and graduate student Kenneth Cheung, and is described in a paper presented recently at the 2012 Intelligent Robots and Systems conference. Its key feature, Gershenfeld says: "It's effectively a one-dimensional robot that can be made in a continuous strip, without conventionally moving parts, and then folded into arbitrary shapes."






MIT News at Noon with Neil Gershenfeld and Ara Knaian

Published on Dec 3, 2012




> Neil Gershenfeld, Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms, and visiting scientist Ara Knaian, deliver their"News at Noon" talk at the MIT Museum. The event is co-sponsored by the MIT News Office and the Museum, and features researchers discussing their recently promoted work.
> 
> On Nov. 30, Gershenfeld and Knaian discussed their robot, the Milli-Motein, which is not only one of the world's smallest robots, but if can also reconfigure itself in a matter of seconds.

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## Airicist

Article "The robotic equivalent of a Swiss army knife"

by David L. Chandler
November 30, 2012

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## Airicist

Article "The Milli-Motein: A Self-Folding Chain of Programmable Matter
with a One Centimeter Module Pitch"

by Ara N. Knaian, Kenneth C. Cheung, Maxim B. Lobovsky,
Asa J. Oines, Peter Schmidt-Neilsen, and Neil A. Gershenfeld

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