Toward self-replication of robot control circuitry by self-inspection

Abstract

The concept of man-made self-replicating machines was first proposed by John von Neumann more than 50 years ago. However, there has never been a physical implementation of his universal constructor architecture as a robotic system. Prior to our other recent work, an autonomous self-replicating mechanical system had not been developed. In this paper, we demonstrate a non-von-Neumann architecture for the replication of transistor circuits by active self-inspection. That is, there are no instructions stored about how to construct the circuit, but information observed about the spatial organization of the original circuit drives a larger electromechanical (robotic) system in which it is embedded to cause the production of a replica of the original circuit. In the work presented here, only replication of the control circuit is of interest. In the current context, the electromechanical hardware is viewed as a tool which is manipulated by the control circuit for its own reproduction. This architectural paradigm is demonstrated with prototypes that are reviewed here and compared with an implementation of the universal constructor concept. © Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg 2006.