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Mimicking reproduction in living organisms, researchers have built a simple self-replicating robot out of automated blocks.
Machines that can copy themselves have been built before, but the earlier experiments were limited to two dimensions or confined to a track. Hod Lipson and his collaborators at Cornell University have designed modular cubes, called molecubes, that can assume a range of three-dimensional shapes.
"People think of robots as durable metallic machines, and the only way to make them last longer is to make them more sturdy," Lipson said.
Lipson and his colleagues are exploring a different paradigm, in which robots become more robust through self-repair.
"Animals survive longer than robots because they can repair themselves," Lipson explained in a telephone interview.
Originally posted by BadMojo
"Robots building robots...now that's just stupid."-Will Smith, I Robot