Self-healing robots step toward reality

Scientists on Wednesday said they had created a small robot that can recover from damage, in a step toward machines that mimic the remarkable adaptive powers of humans and animals.

The feat could one day lead to first-responder robots that can cope with dangers that today would put them out of operation, the scientists said.

"The idea is to have robots that can survive in hostile environments such as a Fukushima-type nuclear disaster," said Jean-Baptiste Mouret of the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris.