Slashdot Mirror
Learning Robots
carnun writes "The NewScientist is reporting on a new snakelike robot that uses genetic algorithms to change its motion pattern so that it can still function after sustaining damage." Roland Piquepaille sends in a report about another "learning" robot, named Adam, which is designed to seek out and feed from "flowers".
A man by the name of Mark Tilden has been building 'unstoppable' robots for years out of regular components. He got his start building cheap, autonomous anti-land mine robots for the military that could have one leg blown off and still crawl around to find another.
He also built $5 robots that crawled through mazes faster than anything MIT ever put together, pissing off the school's robotics department.
Google for BEAM Robotics, and check out this interview:
http://www.exhibitresearch.com/tilden/
the 'genes' part is new (and very cool) but the 'snakebot' as a concept has been around for a while. NASA announced something like it in OCT-00 nasa and this guys tried to put it in layman terms: here
Ah... there's my account ;-)
o t/polybot.html
anyway, this is already done with PolyBot:
http://www2.parc.com/spl/projects/modrobots/polyb
each module is autonomous, and it can make legged as well as snake-like configurations. I assume that this worm i similar.
I read all the comments about this story.
First, if you want a direct access to my report, click here.
Then, even if I agree that's the code behind and the robot itself don't look *very complex*, I think the idea of a robot recharging its batteries from pseudo-flowers is pretty refreshing -- if I might say so.
And, finally, you need to read what Andy Russell, Professor at Monash University in Australia, says on his homepage: "For me this is a new area of research and so there are no publications as yet."
A last note: the small videos available on his site are really fun to watch.