At the University of Vermont, the robots are learning about their bodies. Bot-tots who come online flat on the floor like babies and then gradually find upright positions, learned how to walk many times faster than their pre-positioned counterparts. Turns out learning in small steps -- how to crawl before standing before walking -- makes for a better adapted robot in the real world. So if you're giddy for a future robo-maid, start preparing the nursery since it may have to be “raised” before it can bring you breakfast in bed.
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The research is being conducted by evolutionary robotics researcher Josh Bongard. He and his colleagues team did a computer simulation before busting out the Legos (he really did this later, using some Lego Mindstorm kits). In 5,000 3-D simulations, they discovered that the body-changing bots starting on the ground figured out how to move to a target in just minutes versus the hours it took upright-starting bots to do the same. Presumably, beginning in a walk rather than a crawl meant those bots needed to master balance while simultaneously mastering motion -- a harder task.
Then Bongard built robot skeletons with twelve moving parts, and watched them learn to while shifting form. In the physical world, these quadruped bots needed braces over their limbs to gradually tilt their frames upright. But as expected, the evolving bots started learning to move on the ground before gradually adding in vertical balance and achieving a standing stride.
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But why bother making robot bodies evolve at all? Wouldn't we rather have all our machines perform a task perfectly as soon as we hit “on”? The idea is to create robots that can adapt to changing, unpredictable environments, like construction sites or even the home. A machine that figures out how to get back up on its own after being tipped over is far more useful than one who needs a babysitter all the time. That solved, all we'd need to do is teach the robots how to raise each other...
Viva la revolution!
Read the UVM story for more, and watch this YouTube video of the simulated and physical bots:
Tags: Autonomous Robots, Biomimetics, Evolution, Robotics, Robots
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