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Pregnant robots? China researcher works on humanoid with artificial womb: Reports
A prototype is expected to be unveiled next year, with an estimated retail cost of about 100,000 yuan
- PUBLISHED: Fri 22 Aug 2025, 9:10 PM
The world's first pregnancy robot is being developed in China, local media outlets have said, quoting an interview of the creator in a science journal.
On August 8, the Chinese science and technology platform Kuai Ke Zhi published an interview with Zhang Qifeng, a doctoral researcher at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, who is working on the development of a pregnancy robot.
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The device is designed in human form and incorporates an artificial womb in its abdomen, allowing it to sustain a fetus for the full gestation period of roughly ten months before delivering the baby.
A prototype is expected to be unveiled next year, with an estimated retail cost of about 100,000 yuan.
Unlike an incubator, this concept involves a humanoid machine equipped with an abdominal cavity that functions as a womb, capable of replicating the entire process of human reproduction, from conception to childbirth.
The artificial womb system allows foetal development inside a chamber filled with synthetic amniotic fluid, with nutrients supplied through a connecting tube.
Zhang said that the technology behind the artificial womb has already reached an advanced stage and that the next step is integrating it into a robot.
He added that this technology has already produced promising outcomes in animal trials. Research published in the journal Nature Communications detailed a 2017 experiment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where scientists managed to keep a premature lamb, at an equivalent stage of 23 weeks of human pregnancy, alive inside an artificial womb called a 'biobag'.
This biobag, constructed from transparent vinyl, contained a solution of warm water and salt that simulated amniotic fluid, while nutrients were delivered through a tube attached to the lamb’s umbilical cord. After four weeks in this environment, the lamb developed wool, demonstrating the system’s effectiveness.
