New robots can build other bots, fix themselves
Published: May 12, 2005, 6:44 AM PDT
Self-replicating robots are no longer the stuff of science fiction.
Scientists at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., have created small robots that can build copies of themselves.
Each robot consists of several 4-inch cubes that have identical machinery, a computer program for replication, and electromagnets to attach and detach
to one another. 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 self-replicate by using 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," Lipson said.
The robots, which don't do anything else except make copies of themselves, are powered through contacts on the surface of the table and transfer data
through their faces.moron - 5-13-2005 at 10:40 AM
Skynet has become self-aware!BobbyFrontline - 5-13-2005 at 05:48 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by moron
Skynet has become self-aware!
This is one of the many reasons I love this bored. Wit I tell ya..Wit!KyleOz - 5-13-2005 at 08:18 PM
Hey boycott, those replicators got eradicated on the season finale!
God I am such a dork for knowing that.forsaken - 5-13-2005 at 09:59 PM
I'll be impressed the day they can grow a little fetus robot, pop it out a robots cunt and it grows into a 6 foot robot who can do it all over again.
No matter how you look at it, the human reproductive cycle is amazing. I dont think robots will come close for a long long time.
