Defining Life: Connecting Robotics and Chemistry

Abstract

Life is commonly referred as open systems driven by organic chemistry capable to self reproduce and to evolve. The notion of life has also been extended to non chemical systems such as robots. The key characteristics of living systems, i. e. autonomy, self-replication, self-reproduction, self-organization, self-aggregation, autocatalysis, as defined in chemistry and in robotics, are compared in a dialogue between a chemist and a robotitian. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.