The main issue and limitation with existing robots is the fact that, if a new piece or extension is added to them after their construction is finished, the software controlling the entire thing has to be fully re-designed and re-implemented, in order to ensure that the “graft” holds. This process takes up a lot of time, resources, and money, which generally means that machines are left with their original design until they are destroyed. Now, researchers say they have developed a software that allows the robot to grow with new implants, meaning that new technology could be added without a basic re-shaping of the operating system.

The principles of the new method are very similar to those employed by the human brain in the way it stores memories and new abilities to perform operations. In other words, new brain cells move on top of older ones, not replacing them, but augmenting their abilities. In a similar manner, the new design from the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK, created by artificial intelligence engineer Christopher MacLeod and other team members, advocates the use of “clusters” of small processing units that can behave in the same way neurons in the human brain do.

“If we want to make really complex humanoid robots with ever more sensors and more complex behaviors, it is critical that they are able to grow in complexity over time – just like biological creatures did,” MacLeod says. He basically sets the foundation of a new field in robotics, which deals with the correlations between the way artificial machines understand to accept new components, either software or hardware, and the manner in which the human body constantly evolves while growing.

To test their idea, scientists have created a robot the size of an average book, which has been propelled by two pegs for legs, and has 6 neuron-control systems. The command that has been issued to the machine has been to travel as far as it could in 1,000 seconds. “It fell over mostly, in a puppyish kind of way. But then it started moving forward and not falling over straight away – and then it got better and better until it could eventually hop along the bench like a mudskipper,” the researcher explains.

Based on the British design, a large number of improvements are possible in the field of robotics, ranging from adding more brain cells to creating robotic structures a bit more complicated than the ones the researchers use. Hopefully, this cooperation will pave the way for the creation of a new class of machines that will be able to develop itself in much the same way humans do.