Generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as ChatGPT and stable diffusion It may feel like we’ve taken a giant leap into the sci-fi reality that AI is a physical entity all around us.
Indeed, computer-based AI seems to be advancing at an unprecedented rate. But the pace of progress in robotics, which can be thought of as the potential physical embodiment of AI, is slow.
Will future AI systems need robotic “bodies” to interact with the world? If so, nightmarish ideas like self-healing, shape-shifting T-1000 Will Terminator 2 movie robots come to fruition? And can we build a robot that can “live” forever?
Energy of life
Organisms like us need energy to function. We take in a combination of food, water and oxygen. Most plants also need access to light to grow.
Eternal robots likewise require a continuous supply of energy. Electricity now dominates the energy supply in the world of robotics.most of the robots battery chemistry.
An alternative battery type using Nuclear waste and ultra-thin diamond at its coreAn inventor called a San Francisco startup nanodiamond battery, claiming a possible battery life of tens of thousands of years. Very small robots are ideal users of such batteries.
But a more likely long-term solution to powering robots could involve alternative chemistry, even biology.2021 Berkeley Lab and UMAss Amherst, USA scientists have demonstrated that tiny nanobots can obtain energy from chemicals. the liquid they swim in.
Researchers are now looking at how to scale up this idea to larger robots that can work on solid surfaces.
self repair and copy
Of course, even immortal robots may need repairs from time to time.
Ideally, the robot will self-heal if possible. In 2019, a Japanese research group A research robot called PR2 that tightening Proprietary screws with screwdriverThis is like self-surgery! However, such techniques only work when repair of non-critical components is required.
Other research groups are investigating how soft robots can self-heal when damaged. A Belgian group has shown how the robot they developed recovered after being stabbed in one leg by her six times. Pause for a few minutes until the skin heals on its own, and left.
Another unusual concept of repair is that the robot uses other things it finds in the environment to replace broken parts.
How scientists reported last year A dead spider can be used as a robotic gripper. This form of robotics is known as “necrobotics”. The idea is to use dead animals as ready-made mechanical devices and attach them to robots to be part of them.
Video shows a spider attached to a syringe being lowered onto another spider and picking it up. Proof-of-concept necrobotics involved taking a dead spider and “reanimating” its hydraulic legs with air to create a surprisingly powerful gripper. Preston Innovation Institute/Rice University.
Robot colony?
From all these recent developments it is clear that, in principle, one robot could live forever. But there is a long way to go.
Most of the proposed solutions to energy, restoration, and replication problems have been demonstrated only in the laboratory, under highly controlled conditions, and generally on a small scale.
The final solution could be one of a large colony or herd of tiny robots sharing a common brain or mind. After all, this is exactly how many species of insects have evolved.
The concept of the ‘mind’ of an ant colony has been pondered for decades. A study published in 2019 showed that ant colonies themselves have a form of memory. Not included in any ant.
This idea aligns very well with the days of having large clusters of robots that can use this trick to replace individual robots if needed, but let the clusters “live” indefinitely .
![Colony of red ants at work](https://www.startupdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/AdobeStock_411816639-300x200.jpeg)
Ant colonies may contain “memories” dispersed among many individual insects. adobestock
After all, the terrifying robot scenarios outlined in countless science fiction books and movies rarely develop suddenly without anyone noticing.
Especially in complex systems, it is very difficult to design highly reliable hardware. Today, no engineered product can last forever or for hundreds of years. If you ever invent an immortal robot, you also have the opportunity to incorporate some safeguards.