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Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Robots Made by a Robot!

Researchers introduced four little robots to the world last week. All they can do is move slowly across a tabletop. But here’s the cool part: they weren’t created by humans. They are machines created by machines.

Researchers Jordan Pollack and Hod Lipson of Brandeis University gave a computer a description of the parts it could use and the goal of building something that moves. The computer began cranking out designs.

After rejecting hundreds of designs, the computer sent final instructions to a machine that made the robots: the arrow, the tetra, the snake and the crab.

The researchers then installed motors, and stood back to watch the robots go. "We got ratcheting motions. We got rolling motions. We got swimming motions," said Pollack. Other scientists said this was an important step toward inventing machine-designed robots to explore space.

Next: By the Numbers