Bid to breed free-thinking robots

Reality is set to come a step nearer science fiction with an experiment designed to prove that robots are capable of acting and evolving independently.

The test, beginning next month, will divide 15 mobile robots, between 1ft and 2ft tall, into five predators and 10 prey. The two "species" will have to obtain energy to survive and breed. But they will form an artificial food chain in which some must graze and some must hunt.

To stay alive the prey "graze" from battery-recharging white lights which they have to seek out using solar sensors.

The predators need to suck out energy from their victims using a metallic "fang".

Each robot has an artificial neuronetwork, the equivalent of a brain. At the end of each generation - expected to last around 30 minutes - the two survivors will have half of their "brain" passed to the next generation. It is hoped that subsequent generation will learn from its forebears.

Inventor Professor Noel Sharkey, 53, a world authority on machine learning, is a judge on the BBC's Robot Wars, which gave him the idea for the experiment.

He hopes the robots will use their experiences to develop improved survival strategies. He said: "They may find over many generations that if you're surrounded by the infrared signatures of other prey, you're going to live. So the ones most likely to live are those in the centre of the herd, and they will pass on their genes so the next generation will be more likely to herd together.

"With the predators we're likely to see them get very competitive with one another. But later generations may see them forming into a pack."

One major application of the technology could be in robots working in conditions that are hostile to human beings, such as the ocean floors or other planets in the solar system. It is the first ever experiment of its kind in the world and is scheduled to last between two and three years.

The robots can be seen from 27 March at the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, Yorkshire.