Injured robot learns to limp

FRENCH researchers are developing a robot that can overcome its own injuries - and even fix itself - without human intervention.

The team at the Pierre et Marie Curie university in Paris have worked on an algorithm that enables a robot to realise it is damaged and either repair itself or find a workaround within two minutes.

The experiment was based on a 50cm robot with six legs. Once it had learned to walk, the researchers inflicted various injuries on it - such as having a leg missing or shortened.

The robot then learned to diagnose where its injury was and find the best way of using its remaining functional legs to complete its mission, in much the same way as a human or animal limps to take the strain off an injured body part.

One of the researchers, Jean-Baptiste Mouret, wrote in the scientific review Nature, that a robot needs to be able to survive hostile environments, such as a nuclear catastrophe, and continue its duties even after it has suffered damage.

The team will be presenting their invention at the Darpa Challenge, an international robotics competition in California next weekend.