Scientists in the U.K. are taking the first steps in a project to create the first real-life Transformers - those toys that can change shape from, say a car, into a robot. The project has echoes of last year’s Transformers film about alien robots that disguise themselves as cars, motorbikes and lorries to wage war on each other.

It’s actually called the Symbrion project, a multi-million dollar experiment funded by the EU. Scientists will attempt to build swarms of tiny robots, each the size of a sugar cube, that move around on their own and connect together to form larger, intelligent machines.

Researchers say the first swarm of autonomous, intelligent, shape-changing robots could be in use within five years.

The scientists are very excited about the possibilities about saving lives. Here’s a quote:

“They could be used in medicine, in space exploration and in search and rescue missions,” said a spokesman for scientists at the University of the West of England in Bristol and the University of York. “You can imagine dropping hundreds of these small robots into a crevice after a building has collapsed. They would find each other and maybe connect together to form a snake-shaped object that could wriggle through the wreckage.”Then they could re-form into a spider to climb over a wall - or a robot with an arm that could lift rubble away. The possibilities are endless.”

Here’s the link to the University of York’s media alert, but you also might find this link about the SYMBRION project helpful as well.
Each robot would have wheels or tentacles, allowing it to move around independently. It would contain a small computer brain, making it as intelligent as an iPod or iPhone, and use infra-red to find other cubes. It sounds like it’s straight from children’s comic book or adventure movie!

I promised to update you on Innovationedge’s collaboration with Russia’s International Science and Technology Center (ISTC). As you know, we announced our partnership with InnovationPoint to work on a multi-year contract to help some of the most innovative minds in Russia –many of whom are former U.S.S.R. weapons scientists and engineers—to redirect their talents and bring new science and technology capabilities to the United States.

These scientists are highly skilled in biotechnology, agriculture, biomass, health care, nanotechnology and bioengineering. We formally launched our partnership with ISTC in Moscow last November, and have since had several opportunities to advance our mission. To date we have identified and set up meetings with key U.S. partners who could leverage the knowledge and capabilities of our Russian innovators. We’ve also developed marketing materials such as ISTC partnership brochures.

Last month, Innovationedge’s Jeff Lindsay, Director of Solution Development, traveled to Moscow for its Drug Design and Development Conference. The two-day international conference included reps from the World Health Organization, CDC, pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology businesses from Europe, the U.S. and Canada who shared their vision of novel therapeutics to combat emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and cancer.

The symposium was an opportunity for us to get an overview of the biotech work of many Russian scientists. From the perspective of commercializing technologies, most of the technologies shown represented early stage exploratory work. When a biotech company has parallel interests and sees a fit with a particular chemistry being studied, it is a chance for licensing. Some of the capabilities, such as modeling of drug properties for improved activity, may have potential to find a variety of interested partners.

We are exploring specific projects and existing technologies in these areas so that we can make our efforts to find commercial partners. Some of these projects may already have enough data developed to create interest in drug companies that may wish to further explore and develop these exciting opportunities.