When Robots Play Games

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Posted by timothy on Sunday May 23, 2004 @07:24AM from the everyone-loses dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "If the theory of evolution has worked well for us -- even if this is arguable these days -- why not apply it to mobile robots?, asks Technology Research News. Several U.S. researchers just did that and trained neural networks to play the Capture the flag game. Once the neural networks were good enough at the game, they transferred them to the robots' onboard computers. These teams of mobile robots, named EvBots (for Evolution Robots), were then also able to play the game successfully. This method could be used to build environment-aware autonomous robots able to clear a minefield or find heat sources in a collapsed building within 3 to 6 years. But the researchers want to build controllers for robots that adapt to completely unknown environments. And this will not happen before 10 or maybe 50 years. You'll find more details and references in this overview, including a picture of EvBots trying to find their way during a game." Read on for a similar robot competition held this weekend in France.

saunabad writes "The annual Eurobot autonomous robot contest for amateurs is held this weekend on La Férte-Bernard, France. This year's theme is 'coconut rugby,' and the robots are collecting small stress balls from the field and carrying them to the opponent's end, or shooting them in the rugby goal, while avoiding the randomly placed obstacles at the same time. Each team has a one main robot and an optional small assisting robot."

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WHEN TACO PLAYS WITH HIS PENIS by (TK)Dessimat0r · 2004-05-23 07:25 · Score: -1, Troll

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Caution by Plaeroma · 2004-05-23 07:30 · Score: 0, Troll

I know it's still a long way off from a Matrix-esque scenario (or better yet, Skynet), but this has me a little jumpy. Not because we are doing amazing things with AI these days, but because we keep advancing it in a totally carefree manner. Perhaps it is time to start applying a little caution in our ever forward moving technology push? I for one would feel stupid if all that 'ridiculous' sci-fi stuff ending up happening.
Head shot! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-23 07:47 · Score: -1, Troll

muh muh muh MONSTER KILL! Kill! Kill!
mo3 dow8 by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-23 11:59 · Score: -1, Troll

similarly grisly 'superior' machine. 'first post' Turd-suckiPngly People's faces at move any equipment good to w8ite you troubles of Walnut FreeBSD had long