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Meet The Robot That Builds Robots

"Mother robot" designs and builds new robots. (Biologically Inspired Robotics Laboratory at the University of Cambridge)
"Mother robot" designs and builds new robots. (Biologically Inspired Robotics Laboratory at the University of Cambridge)

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a robot that is able to design and build new robots. Using the process of natural selection, this “mother robot” will test its “children,” and from those tests, design even better ones.

The research is part of a growing field called evolutionary robotics, and while it is testing the boundaries of artificial intelligence, it is also revealing new ways of thinking about biological processes.

Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd speaks with Fumiya Iida, who led the team behind mother robot, about what the team has learned and what they believe is next for the future of robotics.

[Youtube]

[Youtube]

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