Scientists at the Cornell University in Ithaca, New York have created small robots that can build copies of themselves. Self-replicating robots are no longer the stuff of science fiction.

Each robot consists of several 10-cm cubes which have identical machinery, electromagnets to attach and detach to each other and a computer programme 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. 

辅助阅读：

据路透社报道，位于纽约伊萨卡的康奈尔大学的科学家研制出能够自我复制的小型机器人。自此，可自我复制的机器人不再是科幻小说中才会有的情节素材。

每个机器人都由多个10cm大小的立方体组成。这些立方体具有同一的部件、互相连接或分离的电磁石和计算机复制程序。这些机器人可以对立方体进行变形、选择、叠加等操作。

“与生物学上的自我复制相比，我们所研制的机器尚非常简单。但这证明了自我复制并不是生物学上的特有性能，机械的自我复制也是可能的。” 本周三Hod Lipson在科学期刊《自然》上的一篇报告中说到。

他和他的研究小组相信，该设计原理可用于制造长期的可自我修复的机器人。这种机器人可以进行自我调整，可应用于危险环境下和太空飞行中。

这种实验性机器人通过与工作台表面的接触而获得能量，通过面部来传递数据。它们只进行自我复制，不进行任何其他操作。这种自我复制是由置于专门的“供给区”的附加模组实现的。一个四模组机器人在2.5分钟内即可完成对从“供给区”选取出的立方体的重新组合，实现一次复制。