Imagine sending a robot into an unfamiliar environment without knowing what it might encounter.
If it comes across something its existing sensors cannot detect, it would normally need to return to a workshop for new equipment. But what if it could instead grow a new sensor right where it needs one?
A team of researchers has demonstrated a step toward this possibility with a moth-shaped robot that uses an artificial circulatory system to transport chemical ingredients through its body and grow a functioning light sensor wherever ultraviolet (UV) light strikes.
“I’m working on giving robots a circulatory system, so they can transport molecular building blocks across the whole body and create the hardware they need, on site, where and when it’s needed,” Kadri-Ann Pankratov, lead researcher and a PhD student at the University of Tartu in Estonia, said.
The experiment suggests that robots could eventually adapt not just by changing how they use existing hardware, but by chemically creating entirely new capabilities within their bodies.
Most robots leave the factory with their hardware already decided. Engineers must anticipate which sensors they will need and where to install them.
Although adaptive software can help robots respond to unexpected situations, it cannot compensate for a missing physical sensor. Adding entirely new capabilities after deployment remains a significant engineering challenge.
The researchers from the University of Tartu in Estonia and the Italian Institute of Technology explored whether a robot could overcome this limitation by borrowing an idea from nature: circulation. In insects, an open circulatory system pumps hemolymph, a blood-like fluid, through the body, allowing it to reach different organs and tissues.
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