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U.S. scientists create self-replicating robot


__Kratos__

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LONDON (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 10-cm (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 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. 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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I have watched enough sci-fi to know that self-replicating robots are not a good thing... *twitchs*

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AHHHHHHHHH!

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they need to do that with GI Joes and stuff, make one that explodes, but builds itself so its good as new, or better yet! a PSP that when the screen shattters cause you hold it the wrong way fixes itself!

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The future will indeed be an amazing place with technologies many of us can barely comprehend!

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The future will indeed be an amazing place with technologies many of us can barely comprehend!

619664[/snapback]

like VCRs that set themselves? happy.gif;

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***SPECIAL NEWS UPDATE******

The scientists at Cornell University, who recently invented the world's first replicating robots, have apparently advanced the technology well beyond their grandest predictions, by creating robots which can now construct themselves into an identical replica of any human being simply by observing them, either in person, or even from a television program, through microscopic sensor arrays.

Reports suggest the first replicas were created about one month ago in a laboratory by having the robots observe episodes of Baywatch. However, reporters are unable to verify this, as the scientists have steadfastly refused to unlock the door to the lab they have lived in for the past four weeks!!

laugh.giflaugh.giflaugh.gif

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like VCRs that set themselves?

something like this goes far beyond the realms of physics:)

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While it is an interesting science, I do hope that serious attention is placed on controlling propagation.

A self-replicating device of any sort could have disastrous effects.

Ummm... just look at us humans blink.gif

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