Robots Making Robot Babies?

Dutch researchers say it might be possible someday to "breed" robots, allowing the robots themselves to select out what traits are most "attractive" in environments with unanticipated challenges.

A research team at VU Amsterdam created a "Birth Clinic" with a 3-D printer, a "Nursery," and an "Arena" where the toy-like robots live, work, and reproduce. The robots have a motivation to go toward a red light and "mate"--or upload a combination of their physical traits to the nursery's 3-D printer, along with a combination of their software. They envision robots that could use evolutionary-type processes to create better versions of themselves for deep sea mines, other planets--or perhaps even the human body.

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[Image courtesy of VU Amsterdam]