Chinese researchers develop a pregnancy robot: A groundbreaking innovation in reproductive technology
A Chinese firm is working on a pregnant robot.
Image: IOL / Ron AI
The idea of a robot carrying a baby might sound like something straight out of an episode of Black Mirror, but researchers in China are working to make it a reality.
A Guangzhou-based company, Kaiwa Technology, is developing what they call a pregnancy robot, which is a life-sized humanoid designed to carry a fetus from conception to birth.
The robot, created by Dr. Zhang Qifeng, has an artificial womb filled with a fluid that mimics the natural environment of pregnancy.
Nutrients and oxygen would reach the fetus through a tube that functions much like an umbilical cord.
Artificial womb technology isn’t new. In 2017, researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia successfully grew a premature lamb inside a “biobag.”
Within weeks, the lamb developed normally, proving that growth outside a biological mother is possible.
The goal now is to extend that success to human pregnancies and to integrate it into a humanoid robot that can interact with people while nurturing life.
For couples facing infertility, this development could be groundbreaking.
It may also provide an alternative for those unable or unwilling to go through the physical demands of pregnancy.
The cost of using the robot is expected to be around $14,000.
While this might sound like a fortune, it’s far less than the $100,000 to $200,000 often associated with human surrogacy in the United States.
Dr. Qifeng says a prototype should be ready within the next year, with a public debut planned soon after.
While it raises ethical and societal questions, the pregnancy robot could mark a turning point in how families are formed, offering new options where few previously existed.
IOL Lifestyle