Researchers Create the First AI-Controlled Robotic Limb That Can Learn To Walk Without Being Programmed (sciencealert.com)

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Researchers Create the First AI-Controlled Robotic Limb That Can Learn To Walk Without Being Programmed (sciencealert.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @10:00PM from the that-didn't-take-long dept.

schwit1 shares a report from ScienceAlert: Researchers at the University of Southern Carolina (USC) claim to have created the first AI-controlled robotic limb that can learn how to walk without being explicitly programmed to do so. The algorithm they used is inspired by real-life biology. Just like animals that can walk soon after birth, this robot can figure out how to use its animal-like tendons after only five minutes of unstructured play.

Today, most robots take months or years before they are ready to interact with the rest of the world. But with this new algorithm, the team has figured out how to make robots that can learn by simply doing. This is known in robotics as "motor babbling" because it closely mimics how babies learn to speak through trial and error. "During the babbling phase, the system will send random commands to motors and sense the joint angles," co-author Ali Marjaninejad an engineer at USC, told PC Mag. "Then, it will train the three-layer neural network to guess what commands will produce a given movement. We then start performing the task and reinforce good behavior."

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Yoookay.... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 22:05 · Score: 0

Cool but pretty sure this has been done before.
1. Re: Yoookay.... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 22:55 · Score: 0
  
  Yes your robot limb can fling poo, open peanuts and similar nuts, imitate al gores gestures, among many other things
2. Re: Yoookay.... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 23:08 · Score: 1
  
  What's really *cool* with an arm trained by machine learning it doesn't have to get it exactly right. Close enough is plenty good for many tasks that do not require finesse, like crushing or walking in a general direction, etc
3. Re: Yoookay.... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-20 03:26 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah!, it's learned be a Trump supporter!
Why not link to the university website? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 22:08 · Score: 5, Informative

There's a link there: https://pt.usc.edu/2019/03/08/...
There is no need for journalists to add another layer between us and researchers any more thanks to the internet.
Remember playing the telephone game as a kid? It's better to get info from the horse's mouth than have it passed down and muddled through extra layers.
1. Re: Why not link to the university website? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 22:51 · Score: 1
  
  You're just waiting for the harsh screams of citation needed that will be coming soon rather than asking for a formal reference to the source.
2. Re:Why not link to the university website? by necro81 · 2019-03-20 00:05 · Score: 2
  
  I'll do you one better and link directly to a PDF on arXiv.
3. Re: Why not link to the university website? by LifesABeach · 2019-03-20 01:12 · Score: 1
  
  I figured there would be more feedback. Also 4 legs? I figure the students at usc.edu might want to consider their post grad work on a machine that walks on just 2 legs. Good job kids, thumbs up emoji.
4. Re:Why not link to the university website? by necro81 · 2019-03-20 01:52 · Score: 1
  
  I'll do you one better and link directly to a PDF on arXiv.
  I'll do you one better: why is link directly?
5. Re: Why not link to the university website? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-20 03:04 · Score: 0
  
  Because people might begin to wonder why we even have Slashdot summaries, or ads on a site with poorly written summaries that link to other sites.
  How much longer would it take for an article like this to show up here if we waited on a USC email spam subscriber to pass it along?
  You came here, to a news aggregator, so expect to find a network of other aggregators on the way to the source because they donâ(TM)t all just troll the entire Internet for the stuff you want to see.
6. Re:Why not link to the university website? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-21 02:00 · Score: 0
  
  Do you one better and post the contents of the PDF...
  Ok, no, I wont.
Ahhh the missing piece by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 22:11 · Score: 0

We need to reinforce the good behaviour of WindBourne when he tells the truth and not just punish him for his lies.
Now we just need to find a lie free post and test.
1. Re: Ahhh the missing piece by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 22:38 · Score: 0
  
  Maybe the robot arm can detect lies. Can it at least make the scouts honor sign or is it just for mobility, like climbing over railings or hobbling around?
The Wrong Trousers by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 22:33 · Score: 1

Of Wallace and Gromit fame. Now with even less penguin required.
University websites make for poor clickbait by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 22:53 · Score: 1

Boring! Too many facts and stuff! And they'll be low on trackers and that sort of crud.
C'mon, haven't you figured BeauHD, msmash, and EditorDavid are adderall-addicted millennials desperate for more clicks from other millennials? It so clearly shows in their "work".
1. Re: University websites make for poor clickbait by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 22:58 · Score: 0
  
  Well, sure, they get distracted so easily. The first sentence of every post is fine, and then the rest of it mysteriously goes downhill. It's a pattern. They should be told to swab decks as soon as they start to go downhill.
Has the arm been improved? by The+Grim+Reefer · 2019-03-19 23:10 · Score: 3

Dr. Strangelove had a few issues with the first generation arm.
1. Re:Has the arm been improved? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-20 05:58 · Score: 0
  
  Meh the first AI that can wank without being programmed happened in the 80's.
Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-19 23:58 · Score: 1

I'm an embedded firmware engineer and it's so awesome to know that there is technology that will allow me to ship product with blank processors that will learn on its own without being programmed. Makes my job so much easier!
1. Re: Awesome! by LifesABeach · 2019-03-20 01:14 · Score: 1
  
  At this point, your job is done here?
Not again by 110010001000 · 2019-03-20 00:45 · Score: 0

They used to call that "fuzzy learning" and it was the hype over 20 years ago, and was discarded soon after it didn't really work. It looks like the new generation is learning it all over again.
1. Re: Not again by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-20 00:56 · Score: 0
  
  That's because millennials don't do research. Virtually everything coming out of their labs or their brains has been done before and found flawed - they are absolutely *determined* to repeat the mistakes of the past through arrogance and entitlement. It's cool, let them fail the way their parents never did. They had to learn sooner or later.
2. Re:Not again by Shaitan · 2019-03-20 01:59 · Score: 2
  
  Most of the "breakthroughs" in AI are from about 20 years ago. Turns out much of what failed then failed because their neural nets were too small. Also, sometimes things work when rediscovered because the person is implementing the idea independently without the baggage of wrong ideas that seemed correct and lead people down the wrong path.
  Everything but incremental improvements "didn't really work" until one day someone figured out how to make it work. Hopefully they give appropriate credit.
3. Re:Not again by religionofpeas · 2019-03-20 02:23 · Score: 1
  
  it was the hype over 20 years ago, and was discarded soon after it didn't really work. It looks like the new generation is learning it all over again.
  Except now it does work.
Not like this, here's the video by goombah99 · 2019-03-20 02:09 · Score: 1

https://www.dailymotion.com/vi...

--
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Origins of Groot? by laie_techie · 2019-03-20 02:09 · Score: 1

I am Groot?
You know you wanna... by Miles_O'Toole · 2019-03-20 02:10 · Score: 1

I'm thinking of a more...recreational application of this kind of software. Something that might be found on the "Silicon Wives" website, for example.

--
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
1. Re:You know you wanna... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-20 05:55 · Score: 0
  
  I'm thinking of a more...recreational application of this kind of software. Something that might be found on the "Silicon Wives" website, for example.
  LOL ... introducing the new autowank 9000, for all of your 'handy' needs ... our AI won't judge you, but the information we upload to our serves to share with our partners for marketing purposes might be a different story.
  Fap fap fap ... *bing* ... you may be interested in our new personal wipes!
2. Re:You know you wanna... by Miles_O'Toole · 2019-03-20 17:09 · Score: 1
  
  Just don't ever use the expression, "Jerk it off".
  
  --
  Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Maybe not the first robot to learn how to walk by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-20 02:13 · Score: 0

2012:
"Cornell University professor Hod Lipson demonstrates how a robot can teach itself to walk without any knowledge of its form and function. "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNL5-0_T1D0
SkyNet smiles... by syn3rg · 2019-03-20 02:43 · Score: 1

The most accurate word in TFA: "Scarily".

--
The contents of this message have been doubly encrypted by ROT13
A single limb? by srl100 · 2019-03-20 03:26 · Score: 2

Lame
Video here by Megahard · 2019-03-20 03:49 · Score: 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

--
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
University of Southern Carolina? by Solandri · 2019-03-20 05:00 · Score: 1

Are the slashdot editors doing their jobs on the phones now, and letting autocorrect fix their typos?
Torn between tropes. by Shag · 2019-03-20 05:59 · Score: 1

1. What could possibly go wrong?
2. And so it begins.
3. I, for one, welcome our self-learning robotic-arm overlords.

--
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
"We call this algorithm... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-20 06:25 · Score: 0

General-to Particular or G2P because we begin by letting the system play at random to internalize the general properties of the leg, like children [learning to walk]."
In other words, it was programmed.
Mod parent up by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-20 07:16 · Score: 0

That's funny!
Do You Want Terminator? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-21 05:03 · Score: 0

Because this is how you get Terminator! One minute it's just an artificial leg, sitting quietly on a counter, the next moment it is hopping around, trying to kill you like the Black Knight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmInkxbvlCs
Not programmed to walk? by tomhath · 2019-03-23 03:56 · Score: 1

It was obviously programmed to find the movements that make it walk. Is yes, it was programmed to walk.