Researchers at Columbia University developed a process called ‘robot metabolism’ to allow machines to feed off each other (Columbia University) <\/p>\n
Scientists have built a robot that grows and heals by consuming other robots<\/a>.<\/p>\n The development heralds a new era of self-sustaining machines and an \u201centirely new dimension of autonomy\u201d for artificial intelligence<\/a>, according to the team from New York\u2019s Columbia University who created it.<\/p>\n “True autonomy means robots must not only think for themselves but also physically sustain themselves,” said Philippe Martin Wyder, lead author and researcher at Columbia Engineering and the University of Washington.<\/p>\n “Just as biological life absorbs and integrates resources, these robots grow, adapt, and repair using materials from their environment or from other robots.”<\/p>\n The cannibal robots work through a process referred to as \u201crobot metabolism\u201d, which allows them to absorb and reuse bits of other robots.<\/p>\n The team showed off this new paradigm through a robotic magnet stick, dubbed the Truss Link, that can expand, contract and attract to other modules.<\/p>\n The robot is able to self-assemble and increase its performance by adding new bits, or discard old parts that have run out of battery or no longer serve a function.<\/p>\n One example shows a tetrahedron-shaped robot integrate a new Truss Link to use as a walking stick in order to increase its speed by more than 50 per cent.<\/p>\n \u201cRobots provide a digital interface to the physical world, and give legs to AI,\u201d stated a video<\/a> produced by Columbia Engineering school.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough adaptable robot bodies, AI could in the future assist us in exploring the depths of the oceans, save lives during natural disasters, help us colonise new planets and support us in our daily lives.<\/p>\n \u201cRobot metabolism shows a path to a new kind of machine \u2013 one that not only learns, but also grows.\u201d<\/p>\n