It seems like the Dutch have done it again. It seems that they have built robots that can actually mate and reproduce robot offspring. Research scientists based in Amsterdam have created a process that now allows two robots to artificially mate and produce robot babies.
It seems that building robots to replace human workers isn’t enough. Now, scientists want them to replicate themselves. Gustzi Eiben, an AI professor in Amsterdam, said of the process that, “We have two robots that meet and mate, and just as in the animal kingdom, this results in a baby. The robots live, work and reproduce…where they are able to select a suitable mating partner.”
After the robot babies are born, they are sent to an “arena”, an education center, where they are taught what they need to be responsible robots. If the robot proves to their day care workers that they can be efficient and responsible, then they will be sent out into the adult robot world where they may find and select a mate to reproduce with.
So, how do these AI scientists actually go about the process of robot reproduction? First, the robots are able to communicate with one another through wi-fi connections. Through this, the scientists say that the robots are mixing their genomes together. After they have a genome mix, that sample goes into a 3D printer. What comes out the other end, apparently, is a robot baby.
Eiben says, “The bodies, brains and behavior are continually tested by the environment and the useful traits are amplified in future generations. This technology opens new perspectives for robotics and artificial intelligence. What does it all mean? It means a proof of concept. And the concept we prove is the evolution of robots and physical hardware. For science this means that artificial evolution can break out of computer simulations and into the real world.”
PHOTO CREDIT: News Target