'Roombots' to Serve You as Table, Chair

Billed as "roombots", these robotic furniture can self assemble into various shapes.

"Each "roombot" is a completely independent unit - a 9-inch-long block that resembles a pair of dice joined together," said Massimo Vespignani from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

It contains a battery and three small motors that allow it to move in three different dimensions.

The "roombot" also has a set of retractable claws so it can hook onto other bots to create bigger structures, or attach onto connectors in its environment, media reports said.

"The 'roombot' can move along a grid of tracks on the floor or wall and connect to other blocks, or the blocks can disconnect from the grid and move freely around a room," Vespignani explained.

"Roombots" could help differentially abled or elderly people, the researchers said in a study, to be published in the journal Robotics and Autonomous Systems.