US Patent Issued to Massachusetts Institute of Technology on May 5 for "Methods and apparatus for autonomous 3D self-assembly, spatial docking and reconfiguration" (Massachusetts Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,617,553, issued on May 5, was assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.).

"Methods and apparatus for autonomous 3D self-assembly, spatial docking and reconfiguration" was invented by Ariel Ekblaw (Somerville, Mass.) and Joseph A. Paradiso (Medford, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for autonomously assembling a plurality of tiles is performed in a microgravity environment. Each tile includes a shell having a first geometrical shape and an arrangement of first magnets and a controller that are supported by the shell. The controller controls operation of the arrangement of first magnets to self-assemble ...