Robotic LEGO Machine Builds Other Things Out Of LEGO -- Potentially Including Itself

A robotic LEGO replicator? Not if this hammer has anything to say about it! (I let my hammer do all the talking because I start stuttering when I get excited)

Software engineer by day, Lego maniac by night Will Gorman has created the MakerLegoBot, a machine that can take a virtual 3-D model and assemble it using Lego bricks.

The machine is itself built entirely out of the Lego system, which raises the possibility -- theoretically at least -- that the machine could, with some modifications, build a copy of itself. The 3-D assembler uses three Lego Mindstorms NXT Bricks, along with 9 NXT motors.

"There is a recursiveness to this whole thing," says Gorman.

"I love the idea of self-assembly and the Star Trek replicator and I love Legos," he says. "I wanted to bring those two worlds together.

Listen Will, I love Stark Trek and LEGO too, but you know what I love even more? Not dying at the hands of self-replicating robots. Is that too much to ask for? It is?! Well how about some spare change? Daddy's got a whiskey tooth that needs a Jack filling.

Hit the jump for a couple more pictures and a video of the plastic replicator in action.

Machine Made of Lego Builds Anything You Want -- Out of Lego [wired]

Thanks to BellaCroix and JtotheT, who agree the only good self-replicating robot is a dead one that's been salvaged for parts and repurposed as playground equipment.

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