Watch this Lego Mindstorms robot play Clash of Clans (video)

Clash of Clans can get a little repetitive as you tap the screen to collect coins and magic elixir on a regular basis. And that’s just the kind of work that a robot can do.

Mark Petzold posted a video of a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot playing the strategy game Clash of Clans, which is one of the most popular and lucrative titles on mobile devices. (And helped Finnish developer Supercell draw $1.5 billion from Softbank and GungHo Entertainment.)

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The robot’s programing has it move across the iPad and tap the screen to collect resources. It keeps the game awake so that the mines don’t get full and the player can maximize resource collection. It turns off the game on a regular basis to allow other players to attack the home fortress.

The next experiment is to see whether the team can program the robot to do something more sophisticated, like attack enemies and donate troops to clanmates. If it can, the researchers may have found the way to climb to the top ranks of the game. We’ll have to find out if the game’s rules prohibit such automated play.