Evo-Bots - From Intelligent Building Blocks to Living Things

One of the grand challenges in robotics - and an enormous driver for technology - is to make robots more like living systems. If this was achieved, robots would act more autonomously, become more flexible, and be able to repair themselves. Life-like robots could even serve as models of natural organisms. They could be used to help answer three of the Top 25 Big Questions facing science over the next quarter-century (see 125th-anniversary issue of Science): Are we alone in the universe? How and where did life on Earth arise? How far can we push self-assembly?

Our long-term vision is to create the first non-biological living system through evolution in the natural world. This project takes arguably a radical approach: creating living systems without using the building blocks of biological systems. Rather, the building blocks, called evo-bots, will be synthesised from scratch. It is expected that evo-bots, similar to RNA/DNA, can give rise to novel forms of life.

Evo-bots are expected to be a game changer in robotics. They are mobile robots that control when to move; however, their direction of motion is entirely dictated by their environment. We believe that this trade-off between mobility and extreme simplicity is an ideal compromise that will enable the fabrication of massively distributed robotic systems composed of millions of units. This will pave the way for a whole new range of applications, for example, in water engineering (micro-robots for inspection tasks) and clinical/healthcare technologies (micro- or nano-robots to operate inside the human body).

Who might benefit from this research?

The general public, society as a whole, animals (e.g., farming/laboratory), industry and academia in the UK and world-wide.

How might they benefit from this research?

In the short-term (1-3 years), the project will contribute to increasing public awareness and understanding of science: in particular, the question of what constitutes life, under what conditions may life emerge, and what constitutes evolution. Involving the public at an early stage will trigger an ethical debate on synthetic lifeforms, the potential co-existence of biological and non-biological life-forms on Earth, and its wider implications.

In the medium-term (3-10 years), the project will contribute to wealth creation and economic prosperity by helping companies to realise new products based on energy-autonomous micro- to nano-scale robotic swarms (e.g., for cleaning surfaces, inspecting pipes, repairing materials). Moreover, it can contribute to general health and well-being by helping new technologies to establish in micro-medicine (e.g., for non-invasive treatments). Similar to a conventional drug, our robots could target and possibly manipulate specific regions while being propelled through the media in which they are suspended. The main advantage of such a design over self-propelled robots is its simplicity. The robots will need several orders of magnitude less power, and they can possibly even harvest the required energy from their environment itself. They can be smaller in size than any existing autonomous mobile robot. Yet, when acting as a swarm of thousands to millions of units, such a system has the potential to solve problems reliably even if operating in confined spaces that are difficult or impossible to reach for humans.

In the long-term (10-50 years), non-biological species may co-exist with biological species, forming a symbiosis that is specifically designed to help human or animal welfare (e.g., to serve humans or animals, to help reduce the number of farm animals and laboratory animals). In principle, this includes relationships where one species benefits without affecting the other (commensalism) or by harming the other (parasitism), and it is therefore important to start a dialogue about the possible merits and dangers that are associated with such technologies.

The project will offer the research team advanced training in engaging with the public, policy makers, industry and scientists of a range of disciplines.