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".
Again, I think it looks like it is time for some robot insurance!
"A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of." - Burt Bacharach
Damn Damn Damn, try as i might i cant find anytihng funny to write for this. I think the snake idea is inspired (imagine the fun aspects of a robo-whacking day hehehe)
:)
Imagine and earthquake scenario or anything along those lines (911) a van turns up and releases several hundred robotic snakes all able to sense heat, movement etcetc..
Bless the Brits and their fabulous snakes
see got a funny line in the end
S
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
Given that we will increasingly use robots to do the work that's too dangerous for humans to do, self-healing robots that can get the job done, damage or no, sound like a nice step forward.
I for one welcome...
Has anyone else noticed the large increase in the number of robot related stories here lately? Beats SCO anyway.... Waitaminnute! Robots beating SCO! Perfect!
I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
I for one welcome our new snake-like robot overlords. :)
Hey is that a new snakelike robot that uses genetic algorithms to change its motion pattern so that it can still function after sustaining damage in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
Best Windows Freeware
Obligatory Simpsons SONG:
Oh Whacking Day
Oh Whacking Day
Our hallowed snake skull-cracking day.
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/
If you find that interesting it's worth reading about a robot called WISOR that was built by a company called Honeybee Robotics. WISOR is uses for inspection and repair of high temperature and pressure steam pipes under the city of New York. It moves through the pipes like a very large inch worm.
There's even a movie (a really odd movie in fact) about it.
John.
How long till they turn it into a sex toy?????
I spent ages trying to think of sig, but never did
Learning robots lead to robot overlords. Just last week, I caught my Roomba changing my long distance service. And my Aibo takes my car for weekends; never tells me where he's going, never pays for gas.
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
Come on now, scientists, who really cares if a robot can sustain damage...why not create a robot that can "learn" to traverse from the TV room over to the kitchen and acquire some beers for its master.
Now THAT would be freakin' cool.
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
Humans will go to great lengths to avoid getting injured (well, most sane ones). However, robots will just do what they are told. While they may be told to avoid any hazards, they just don't have that instinct that says I *really* don't want to get my limb chopped off today.
So to compensate, all robots in hazardous or isolated situations should have this self-healing built in, as well as redundant limbs. A robot could be built with 2 legs, but why not make it 4 or 6 and have a couple to spare. The same goes for sensors. Only two are needed for stereoscopic vision, but 4 or 6 would be better.
--
Luck is just skill you didn't know you had.
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 suspect that the author of the article about Adam may have been a bit overzealous when she described the robot as "revolutionary."
First, I have to give Professor Russell credit for some extremely clever names: Adam (ADAptive Mobile robot), and Eden (EDucational ENvironment).
That said, nothing in the article suggests there is anything remarkable about the robot. The most telling line in the article is "Adam was activated with a basic level of competence, which let him know to back off if he hit a wall, and to feed when he saw a flower." That's two very important abilities Adam didn't have to learn.
It is certainly possible that Adam uses some revolutionary AI algorithm, and if so I would be very interested in it, but I have a hunch that Adam is just an exercise in building a basic robot with a basic learning algorithm and a clever naming scheme.
So then it should theoretically be possible to wire a human body so that it can be remote controllable. --I mean, even in the dorky public access sciences, they have rats which can be directed around laboratory floors with radio control units.
Heck, does the body even have to be 'alive'? --We already have coma victims kept going by machine. Why not, through brain manipulation, fire all the right signals to make the body walk and breathe. And talk. Why not? --All that speech stuff is programmed in there already. --Look at Bush; he's just a reaction machine; no soul inside. Not even an Intel chip. (Though he's not a robot; he's just another boring psycho.)
But hey, many Slashdotters would argue that there are no such things as 'souls' in the first place, which would mean that all humans are just big robots running rogue. Why not simply direct some of those brains and bodies by remote control? Again, public arena science has experimental jet pilots directing their planes with mind-reading helmets. --And the nice thing about electrical impulses is that, as any engineer can tell you, they're a two-way street. (Though somewhat more complicated in biological form, but nonetheless entirely manipulable.)
According to my ever-so-bountiful sources, there are about 1 million of these human robots being used right now on our humble little planet. --It's even possible to simulate an aura, making them difficult to detect even by those who are sensitive to such things. (Not that aruas exist, of course. To suggest such a thing would be foolish.)
Now sure, this may all sound like rather much higher tech than even a well equipped Shadow Government could pull together. And last I heard, human agencies weren't at the level of being able to put a human robot into action, but then things have been moving pretty quick of late. --For instance, I'd be interested to know which particular group is responsible for the lastest bunch of crop circles up in Canada. --The ones which have burnt/blown cavities in the cereal nodes which look as though they were put too long in a microwave.
Human agencies? Maybe. It's tough to say. Things are playing so fast and loose these days, it's nearly a full time job just keeping up!
-FL