It has been the dream - and nightmare - of science fiction writers for decades. Now a team of engineers has conjured up a robot that can reproduce itself. The robot can self-replicate in much the same way that some living organisms are able to reproduce by cloning themselves.

In an experiment that sounds like a science-fiction film plot but is actually as close to real life as artificial intelligence can get, several dozen "predator" and "prey" robots will be released next month into a prepared habitat at the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in the north of England.

Robots are being let loose in a colony of machines in an attempt to find out whether they can learn from their experiences. The scientists behind this unusual experiment describe it as an evolutionary arms race for robots, with the machines struggling to collect energy.

At first glance, Darwin\'s ideas on evolution don\'t seem to have much to do
with computers. But if a line of computer code doesn\'t remind you at least
vaguely of a chromosome -- both are essentially stored information -- you
might want to look into the new field of evolvable hardware, where chips
redesign themselves for optimum efficiency. This is evolution with a silicon
flair.

Electronics engineers are giving birth to a new species of space probes that will adapt to harsh environments, heal themselves and even evolve into better, smarter machines.

The same trick an oyster uses to make mother-of-pearl may ultimately enable
researchers to ``grow\'\' ultra-miniaturized computer chips. The electrical pathways would be self-assembled like the delicate whorls of seashells, rather than etched by conventional manufacturing techniques, and would be only a fraction of the size of the smallest circuit components possible today.

The latest 'Handbook of Industrial Robotics' reports that the population of robots has doubled over the last decade.