Autonomous model protocell division driven by molecular replication

The coupling of compartmentalisation with molecular replication is thought to be crucial for the emergence of the first evolvable chemical systems. Minimal artificial replicators have been designed based on molecular recognition, inspired by the template copying of DNA, but none yet have been coupled to compartmentalisation. Here, we present an oil-in-water droplet system comprising an amphiphilic imine dissolved in chloroform that catalyses its own formation by bringing together a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic precursor, which leads to repeated droplet division. We demonstrate that the presence of the amphiphilic replicator, by lowering the interfacial tension between droplets of the reaction mixture and the aqueous phase, causes them to divide. Periodic sampling by a droplet-robot demonstrates that the extent of fission is increased as the reaction progresses, producing more compartments with increased self-replication. This bridges a divide, showing how replication at the molecular level can be used to drive macroscale droplet fission

An Open-Source Simulator for Cognitive Robotics Research: The Prototype of the iCub Humanoid Robot Simulator

This paper presents the prototype of a new computer simulator for the humanoid robot iCub. The iCub is a new open-source humanoid robot developed as a result of the “RobotCub” project, a collaborative European project aiming at developing a new open-source cognitive robotics platform. The iCub simulator has been developed as part of a joint effort with the European project “ITALK” on the integration and transfer of action and language knowledge in cognitive robots. This is available open-source to all researchers interested in cognitive robotics experiments with the iCub humanoid platform

Automating Automation: Lessons from R.U.R about the Future of Evolutionary Robotics

R.U.R: Rossum’s Universal Robots presents a narrative that discusses the age-old postulate for what separates humankind and automatons. That is, the dichotomy between us and them is that our mechanical servants (robots) are made not born. Self-replication has been a long standing open research problem and topic of discussion in artificial life, with a range of highly anticipated future macro-robotic to nano-robotic applications. More recently, self-replication has been the subject of some research attention in the relatively embryonic field of evolutionary robotics and the topic has even enjoyed some international media attention. One observation drawn from evolutionary robotics research as a whole, is that much like the robots of R.U.R, current experimental evolutionary robotic systems are inexorably tied to their system designers. Dissimilar to the biological counter-parts that they aspire to, such robotic systems are not self-sufficient. Even though such robots have some autonomy in specific environments, they are unable to autonomously propagate and improve their body-brain design on an evolutionary time-scale