Robot ...

[Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

'thought this was interesting (what chance the approach in HA ?)  :


16 November 2006

Heidi Ledford

Josh Bongard's robots ... created by Bongard and a team of engineers at
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, can sense and respond to damage
without human instruction ... .   Each robot begins lying flat on the
table, with no knowledge of how to walk.   It makes small, random
motions with each leg while Bongard's team feeds it information about
its body's tilt and angle at each joint.   The robot uses the
information to construct computer models that predict the outcomes of
different movements, taking into account factors such as gravity,
friction and momentum.   It gingerly tests each model with small
movements, much as a human leans on an injured foot to find out how much
weight it can bear.   "When it's most uncertain about itself"
says
Bongard, who is now at the University of Vermont in Burlington,
"that's
when it moves the least".   Once the robot has decided which movements
best suit its situation, it sets-off ... .   When the robot's movements
stop matching its model - if it has been injured, for example - then the
robot builds a new model incorporating current conditions.   The
selected models are not always successful ... but most of the time,
Bongard's team reports in this week's issue of Science, the robot can
limp along.   Other robots can respond to damage only if they have been
programmed with a specific contingency plan, or if they randomly try all
possible movements, which can mean cycling through hundred of thousands
of permutations.   Bongard's robots are more adaptable & efficient ...
.   At this point, Bongard's robots act as individuals.   The next step,
he says, is to create a network of robots that work together, with each
member of the group learning from the injuries & adjustments of fellow
robots ...

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061113/full/061113-16.html




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