Living Robots Called Xenobots Can Now Reproduce, Scientists Say - IGN - IGN

Scientists who created the first living robots have revealed that the organisms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce, according to their study.

Created using stem cells from the African Clawed Frog (Xenopus laevis), xenobots are less than one millimetre wide and can move, work together as a group and even self-heal.

The bots used a process known as kinetic replication – known to occur at a molecular level but never seen on this scale, using entire cells or organisms.

After realising the xenobots shape was hindering them, researchers used AI to test a variety of new body shapes to maximise the stem cell harvesting process.

However, their use as biological robots involved merely harvesting the cells from frog embryos and leaving them to incubate.

“There are many things that are possible if we take advantage of this kind of plasticity and ability of cells to solve problems,” Bongard said