Five thousand robots will get busy creating a 3D map of millions of galaxies in 2019.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has received US Department of Energy (DoE) approval to move from the design phase to construction, which will start next year.
That includes building the 5,000 10 cm-long, finger-width robots which will have the job of aiming fibre-optic cables at galaxies, stars, and quasars.
DESI's builders have just begun a two-month prototype run of the light collection system in Arizona.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 10 2016, @11:07PM
those had better be self replicating robots