{"id":218124,"date":"2025-07-17T06:21:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T11:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/robots-now-grow-and-repair-themselves-by-consuming-parts-from-other-machines"},"modified":"2025-07-17T06:21:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T11:21:52","slug":"robots-now-grow-and-repair-themselves-by-consuming-parts-from-other-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/robots-now-grow-and-repair-themselves-by-consuming-parts-from-other-machines","title":{"rendered":"Robots now grow and repair themselves by consuming parts from other machines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/robots-now-grow-and-repair-themselves-by-consuming-parts-from-other-machines2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s robots are stuck\u2014their bodies are usually closed systems that can neither grow nor self-repair, nor adapt to their environment. Now, scientists at Columbia University have developed robots that can physically \u201cgrow,\u201d \u201cheal,\u201d and improve themselves by integrating material from their environment or from other robots.<\/p>\n<p>Described in a new study published in <i>Science Advances<\/i>, this process, called \u201cRobot Metabolism,\u201d enables machines to absorb and reuse parts from other robots or their surroundings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrue autonomy means robots must not only think for themselves but also physically sustain themselves,\u201d explains Philippe Martin Wyder, lead author and researcher at Columbia Engineering and the University of Washington. \u201cJust as <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/biological+life\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">biological life<\/a> absorbs and integrates resources, these robots grow, adapt, and repair using materials from their environment or from other robots.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s robots are stuck\u2014their bodies are usually closed systems that can neither grow nor self-repair, nor adapt to their environment. Now, scientists at Columbia University have developed robots that can physically \u201cgrow,\u201d \u201cheal,\u201d and improve themselves by integrating material from their environment or from other robots. Described in a new study published in Science Advances, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}