  Endowing materials with physical intelligence holds the key for a progress
leap in robotic systems. In spite of the growing success for macroscopic
devices, transferring these concepts to the microscale presents several
challenges connected to the lack of suitable fabrication and design techniques,
and of internal response schemes that connect the materials' properties to the
function of an autonomous unit. Here, we realize self-propelling colloidal
clusters which behave as simple finite state machines, i.e. systems built to
possess a finite number of internal states connected by reversible transitions
and associated to distinct functions. We produce these units via capillary
assembly combining hard polystyrene colloids with two different types of
thermo-responsive microgels. The clusters, actuated by spatially uniform AC
electric fields, adapt their shape and dielectric properties, and consequently
their propulsion, via reversible temperature-induced transitions controlled by
light. The different transition temperatures for the two microgels enable three
distinct dynamical states corresponding to three illumination intensity levels.
The sequential reconfiguration of the microgels affects the velocity and shape
of the active trajectories according to a pathway defined by tailoring the
clusters' geometry during assembly. The demonstration of these simple systems
indicates an exciting route to build more complex units with broader
reconfiguration schemes and multiple responses towards the realization of
autonomous systems with physical intelligence at the colloidal scale.
