A crazy new robot that looks like a series of colorful cubes is kinda creepy and kinda amazing.

The robot is self-assembling. Yes, really. The creation of robotics researchers at MIT, the M-Blocks robots are cube-shaped modular bots.

The robots have no external moving parts. Instead, they function under the skin--small flywheels and magnets help the M-Blocks stick together. They are able to move, crawl over each other, and self-assemble.

The robots are roughly the size of wood alphabet blocks, and have flywheels that spin at 20,000 revolutions per minute.

MIT says the microbots are much like the liquid-metal androids featured in the "Terminator" movies. They hope that M-Blocks also end up being the ultimate Transformers, changing their shape on command.

The researchers plan to eventually develop the technology enough that the bots can make their own decisions about how they turn into various shapes.

Modular robots, or reconfigurable robots are able to adapt to their environment--snapping together and apart, climbing over each other, and moving along the ground.

The robots even have the ability to suspend themselves upside down.

iO9 reported, "Currently, each M-Block is controlled externally by an operator (a computer sends instructions via wireless radio). But eventually, the developers hope to provide each block with its own set of algorithms, thus making them autonomous. Future versions could even be equipped with sensors, cameras, and even problem-solving AI, which would make them able to work out how to accomplish specific tasks on their own."

Hopefully they won't be able to make too many decisions or become too smart. That whole overthrowing-the-human-race thing? A little too far.