Slashdot Mirror
Researchers Using AI To Build Robotic Bees
An anonymous reader writes "British researchers at the Universities of Sussex and Sheffield are developing a computer model of a bee's brain that they hope can help scientists better understand the brains of more-complex animals, such as humans, and perhaps power artificial intelligence systems for bee-like robots. Called 'Green Brain,' the project is trying to advance the science of AI beyond systems that just follow a predetermined set of rules, and into an area where AI systems can actually act autonomously and respond to sensory signals."
...every good project has to start somewhere - and it will be interesting to see what this kind of AI modeling will accomplish. Perhaps we can learn more about bees, and how to keep them doing their busy work throughout our world without mass murdering them. ...that being said... the day they crack the secrets of modelling the human female's brain... there is where the real money will be made.
A certain Mars Rover comes to mind.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
for (x in recognize_nearby_objects())
{
if (x.type == FLOWER) {
nuzzle_flower(x);
}
else if (x.type == HUMAN) {
sting(x);
}
else if (x.type == SMOKE) {
sleep(1);
}
else {
buzz();
}
}
"British researchers at the Universities of Sussex and Sheffield are developing a computer model of a bee’s brain that they hope can help scientists better understand the brains of more-complex animals, such as humans, and perhaps power artificial intelligence systems for bee-like robots."
Perhaps bee-like robots. Or robots that function as bees do, where they perform mundane functions over and over for the good of society.
Or to produce dogs with bees in their mouths so when they bark they shoot bees at you
These don't have to be limited to just RoboBees. The algorithm could be used for more than just pollination. Think about it. Build anything of the appropriate size to autonomously go out and collect $RESOURCE, return with a load, refuel itself and go back out. Some cursory self-defense, like hazard evasion, would be nice. Throw in some networked communication to help with discovery of sources and you have a very efficient way to accumulate stuff.
We really need your help
http://www.gofundme.com/help-sherry
I, for one, welcome our new robotic bee overlOH GOD THEY'RE SWARMING
Maybe it could also lead to some research in to bee behaviour.
Hell, even try replace them in nature. Immortal robotic bees, take THAT biology. Now how can you collapse if bees can't die?
Wasn't it recently discovered that bee behavior was strongly influenced by methylation of certain key gene segments, which upregulate certain systems, based on the role in the hive they have been allocated?
"Bee-like" robots, in the truest sense, would be highly susceptible to being reprogrammed through environmental stimulation, otherwise they would not be faithfully bee-like in terms of their AI implementation.
This means those autonomous drones could be repurposed by hackers and ner'-do-wells reasonably painlessly without anyone noticing. The potential for abuse with such an implementation is staggering, and any attempt to close that security hole would ander their use as a research model pointless; they wouldn't be bee-like anymore.
What humans will probably find out while researching AI, is that creating one with artificial constraints to improve reliability and security will come at the deficit of the autonomy and robustness of the finished product. (Think about it. If you introduce a complicated crypto system as the surrogate for the environmental factors that alter bee behavior, then the rate of behavior modification in the dynamic system will be greatly reduced, reducing the robustness and response time of the swarm to changes in their work environment. The bees become less efficient. If scaled up to more complicated AI, like holy-grail strength strong AI, such constraints would effectively lobotomize the construct through compounding inefficiencies.)
While interesting as a research tool, I don't see any robots with an organic-inspired processing system ever getting the greenlight from regulatory agencies.
Shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo make me realise we will just never understand the human brain.
Irwin Allen and James Cameron proudly present:
THE SWARMINATOR!
Homer: Bart, you’re coming home.
Bart: I want to stay here with Mr. Burns.
Burns: I suggest you leave immediately.
Homer: Or what? You’ll release the dogs, or the bees, or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you? Well, go ahead—do your worst!
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
What would a bee's brain know that a human brain does not?
emphasis on fidelity over complexity in neural simulation.
The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
Maybe these ones will be resistant to Monsanto products...
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Herbert's book is the first thing that I thought of when I saw the title.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Brain
At first I thought the name of the project was a coincidence. Then I thought that someone on the team was a Herbert fan. Then I realized that the project is actually trying to do something like what the book describes. Huh.
may possibly be the approach many of these very smart researchers use. Perhaps the focus should be on developing some kind of artifical nevous system with the abitlity to learn on its own rather than trying to program for the dynamics of real world interaction. Perhaps the folks over at Boston Dynamics may be on to something? Not sure what its learning/memory capabilites are but it sure seems to behave like it has some kind of nervous system.
Why go through the trouble of building an actual physical bee, when there are awesome 3d world and physics models that you could drop the bee brain into and it would have no idea the world was simulated. Seems like that would bee a lot easier debug. *cringe*
...by posting on slashdot.
"the project is trying to advance the science of AI beyond systems that just follow a predetermined set of rules, and into an area where AI systems can actually act autonomously and respond to sensory signals."
This isn't possible. All existing and future software is a predetermined set of rules responding to sensory signals.
Is this a wretched demibee,
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
NO! It's Eric the half-a-bee!
. .
SInce AI doesn't yet exist, it dosn't make sense to talk about "using" AI.
I hear them now! Oh no, the horror! .....
POLLINATE! POLLINATE!
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Have they not read "Prey"
But did they also make robot dogs as a robotic bee launching platform when they bark???
I'm a grad student in mechanical engineering at a university - we had a speaker here who was a friend of one of the professors talking about exactly this sort of thing.
Best talk I've been to in a while, possibly ever. He did a TedX talk and his name is Mandyam V. Srinivasan - a quick google search should pull it up. Fascinating
"The bees are fine," said the beekeeper.
While visiting a farmer's market this summer, I asked a beekeeper, "How are the bees?"
I was concerned that he had not understood my full message, so I amplified: "Nationally, I mean ... globally ... Colony Collapse Disorder ...?"
"There is no 'Colony Collapse Disorder'," he assured me. "This is an industry bugaboo, a distraction from the real problem, which is industrial-scale beekeeping.
"Oh, there are bees with mites, and diseases. But the real problem is industrial-scale beekeepers who move their colonies twice a year. When you keep your bees in Minnesota for a few months, then move them south for the winter -- move them next to industrial zones, toxic waste dumps -- then what can you expect?"
I don't know beekeeping, but this guy clearly does: the jar bears his name, his product is widely sold at grocery stores around town (Minneapolis/Saint Paul), and he had the absolute serene confidence of a man who has seen the future, knows the score, and will faithfully answer any question you care to ask.
-kgj