LONDON, England (Reuters) --
Self-replicating robots are no longer the stuff of science
fiction.
Scientists at the Cornell University in Ithaca, New York have
created small robots that can build copies of themselves.
Each robot consists of several 10cm (4 inch) cubes which have
identical machinery, electromagnets to attach and detach to each
other and a computer program for replication.
The robots can bend and pick up and stack the cubes.
"Although the machines we have created are still simple compared
with biological self-reproduction, they demonstrate that mechanical
self-reproduction is possible and not unique to biology," Hod Lipson
said in a report in the science journal Nature on Wednesday.
He and his team believe the design principle could be used to
make long term, self-repairing robots that could mend themselves and
be used in hazardous situations and on space flights.
The experimental robots, which do not do anything else except
make copies of themselves, are powered through contacts on the
surface of the table and transfer data through their faces.
They self-replicate by using additional modules placed in special
"feeding locations."
The machines duplicate themselves by bending over and putting
their top cube on the table. Then they bend again, pick up another
cube, put it on top of the first and repeat the entire process.
As the new robot begins to take shape it helps to build
itself.
"The four-module robot was able to construct a replica in 2.5
minutes by lifting and assembling cubes from the feeding locations,"
said Lipson.
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