Shenzhen, May 20 (Report) — A robotic spider with an intricate shape and precise structure was flipped over and placed on the ground, its four legs pointing upward. It seemed unable to move, yet in the blink of an eye it transformed into a robotic dog, rolled over, and agilely climbed back up, even remembering to "wave and act cute."

　　The reporter recently joined the 2024 "High-Quality Development Research Tour" themed interview activity and visited the Robotics Research Institute of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, where this rather sci-fi scene was witnessed. This "Transformers"-like robot is the first-generation metamorphic robot developed by the team led by Dai Jiansheng, dean of the institute.

　　The term "metamorphic" refers to a disruptive innovation in structure. Today's ever-changing robot application environments and the multi-pattern landscape of industrial production have raised higher demands for changes in robot structures. To this end, Dai Jiansheng's team carried out disruptive innovation in robot structures. The first-generation evolutionary robot they developed achieves transformation of robot configurations through body structure design, and can imitate the morphological features and movement characteristics of different mammals and arthropods.

Dai Jiansheng (second from right), dean of the Robotics Research Institute of the Southern University of Science and Technology, and his team, along with the first-generation metamorphic robot they developed.

　　This gives rise to the scene described earlier: the first-generation metamorphic robot can, without disassembly and reassembly, switch between biological forms such as reptiles, arthropods, and mammals. Besides spiders and dogs, it can also transform into various animal forms such as geckos and stick insects, and imitate the movement characteristics of different animals.

　　This trait allows the metamorphic robot to enter the daily lives of ordinary people as a companion robot. Dai Jiansheng gave an example: a metamorphic multi-legged robot can change various structures to achieve interaction with people. For instance, a originally four-legged robot, upon receiving the command "fetch water," can turn its two front legs into "hands" to carry water over. At the same time, the metamorphic robot can also perform rehabilitation care and household chores such as picking up items and cleaning the environment. Interestingly, under command, the metamorphic robot even comes with its own BGM (background music), flexibly twisting its limbs and body and precisely hitting the beats to perform a lively song and dance.

　　On industrial production lines with greater work intensity and more cumbersome operations, the metamorphic robot also has its place. Dai Jiansheng introduced that applying the metamorphic structure to the design of a robot's palm can break through the constraints on the grasping space and dexterity of existing robotic hands — "the palm can grip, and can also grip in reverse." Equipping such "dexterous hands" on production lines can replace manual labor in completing those difficult and cumbersome tasks, freeing workers from dull, repetitive labor.

　　At present, the metamorphic robot has been upgraded to its second generation, and the current stage of research and development can be completed within a few months. The new-generation holographic evolutionary robot has expanded structural dimensions and is equipped with various sensors such as depth cameras, radar, and infrared cameras. It highly integrates intelligent metamorphic structures, artificial intelligence, and multiple perception technologies, breaking through the difficulties of existing robots such as fixed structures, single functions, and low intelligence.

　　It is understood that the intelligent holographic metamorphic robot can achieve wheeled, legged, and wheel-legged composite motion forms, realize 5 bionic configurations and more than 120 subdivided forms, and can enter post-disaster ruins of earthquakes or coal mine accidents for search and rescue, conduct inspections for fire hazards, carry out water quality testing at wild water sources, or enter wild animal epidemic sources for sample collection, among other tasks.

　　Looking to the future, a more intelligent "Transformers" capable of autonomous cognition and decision-making may become a reality. Dai Jiansheng stated that the metamorphic robot has surpassed the robot's own body structure and powerfully combines artificial intelligence with the physical world of multiple demands.