Sunday, September 02, 2007

Um... This means the robot figured out how to walk and can tell if it's damaged....

The scientists explain:
We demonstrate, both computationally and experimentally, how a legged robot automatically synthesizes a predictive model of its own topology (where and how its body parts are connected) through limited yet self-directed interaction with its environment, and then uses this model to synthesize successful new locomotive behavior before and after damage. The legged robot learned how to move forward based on only 16 brief self-directed interactions with its environment. These interactions were unrelated to the task of locomotion, driven only by the objective of disambiguating competing internal models. These findings may help develop more robust robotics, as well as shed light on the relation between curiosity and cognition in animals and humans...
A short video showing the Starfish robot stretching and getting ready to walk.



Just so you know...if that thing came into my house, I'd beat it to death...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can silicon-based life be far away? Should we welcome our new robot overlords?

ellroon said...

We just know the Neocons and the Pentagon would immediately try to use it for war and controlling the population....

Anonymous said...

If it showed up at my Mother's I'd be replacing ceramic tile for a week. That looks like it's worth at least two rounds of shotgun slugs, and she would hit it with the first, make sure with the second.

Rod Serling would have loved it.

ellroon said...

Lol, Bryan. I really like your mother!

Steve Bates said...

"If that thing came into my house, I'd beat it to death..." - ellroon

But it's so... cute! :p

Actually, I'm sympathetic to the device: that's about what I look like when I'm getting out of bed in the morning. I can identify especially with the sequence in which it manages (unintentionally, I presume, if one can ascribe intent to a robot) to flip itself over. Been there, done that.

And... an Earth populated with such things could hardly be less civilized than it is with the human population we've got now. (OK, OK, so I'm having a difficult day!)

ellroon said...

Well... when we become elderly, we had a machine like that to help us up off the floor, we wouldn't need those Life Alert necklaces...

Sorghum Crow said...

That is the worst aerobics video I have ever seen.

ellroon said...

Lol, Sorghum Crow, welcome home!

I'd do a few wind sprints to get away from that thing....