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New Robot Can Sense Damage, Compensate
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Friday November 17, @03:12AM
from the omni-consumer-products dept.
from the omni-consumer-products dept.
AVIDJockey writes "Researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., built a four-legged robot that can sense damage to its body
and figure out how to adjust and keep going. They report the
development in Friday's issue of the journal Science. The article
states that the robot can, 'generate a conception of itself and then
adapt to damage.' This reaffirms advice that states that when the robot
uprising finally comes, you should always aim your rocket launcher at
the head (or brain nexus)."
New Robot Can Sense Damage, Compensate
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Cornell has a history of unique robots
(Score:5, Interesting)(http://www.saynotocrack.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday November 19, @10:10PM)
Cornell has had mixed success in building leading edge robots. Some of their more incredible robots are front and center (such as the work they contributed on the Mars Rovers), while others are barely useful (such as their early dominance in minitiarized robotic soccer). One of the school's oddest robots, which might have helped inspire the compensatory robot in this article, was this rather bizarre chair that could reassemble itself [youtube.com] if it happened to fall apart. I don't think I'll be buying any of them for the dinner table!
Another example @ MIT, 12 years ago.
(Score:5, Interesting)I'd like to point out a similar bit of work from about 12 years ago. Different approach, but similar goals: Cynthia Breazeal (Ferrell) (hope I'm spelling that right) did some incredibly impressive work as a Grad student @ MIT in the 90s. The most germain is her paper titled Failure Recognition and Fault Tolerance of an Autonomous Robot [mit.edu]
This is a MUST READ paper for anyone interested in building robots which operating in real-time in the unpredictable real world. (Real World. Noun. The place where $#it happens, stuff breaks, sensors get noisy input, etc. and the robot has to "cope" anyway.)
In this paper she describes a methodology for developing a six-legged, insect-like robot, Hannibal [pictures and links [mit.edu]], which can adapt to both minor and gross subsystem failures and continue, as much as practical, to fulfill its mission. IMO, the best part is the section talking about adaptive gaits where the robot can change seamlessly from high-speed to high-stability walking patterns, as required, and should one (or more) of the legs becomes inoperable, the robot learns to make due without it prior programming thanks to the subsumption architecture Rod Brooks invented and she and other notable members of the Mobile Robot Labs perfected.
Her work these days is mostly centered around human-computer/robot interactions exploring emotive systems and feedback to bridge the gap.
Yeah, I'm a fanboy.
Redundant post...
(Score:5, Interesting)That's why any robot worth any title of 'overlord' needs to design itself to use redundant parts, preferably modular and rapidly configurable.
The StarGate creators had a good (if redundant in itself) idea with their 'replicator' race as the main bad guy for a while - only problem is such an enemy quickly forces the need for a, well, deus ex machina as its power grows.
Earlier, the show Lexx had a bad guy using a series of robotic arms that acted in a similar manner, which got so powerful as to entirely destroy one of the two 'universes' that the show took place in. It was impressive, because of the lack of a deus ex machina to fix the, um, daemos ex machina problem. I'm sure countless shows and novels have taken a similar idea before that too.
The future of this idea? Perhaps a Resident Evil game using cyborgs with a shared AI rather than zombies, complete with altering movement for damage? Hey, if everyone can steal ideas from the Thief series, more companies should steal some ideas from System Shock series too!
Ah redundancy - it's everywhere! Likely the mod for this post too.
Ryan Fenton
call me when it can find sarah connor
(Score:4, Funny)(http://www.piratelaws.com/)
Yeah, but was the robot made of intelligent, liquid metal?
Good Month for robots
(Score:5, Funny)Im to lazy to post the robotic links, its not like you dont know what im talking about if you're in this discussion at 3am rushing to check if someone already posted the "i for one" on the robot article. Really though, its cool to see robotics doing some crazy things.
In other news...
(Score:5, Funny)(http://www.cooldark.com/ | Last Journal: Monday April 26, @05:31PM)
Re:In other news...
(Score:5, Funny)(http://etl.cs.luc.edu/ | Last Journal: Monday August 28, @09:28PM)
But can it handle stairs?
(Score:2)(http://www.godhatesfrags.com/)
think more creatively
(Score:1)Is that a big deal ?
(Score:2, Insightful)Replicators
(Score:1)Compensate
(Score:5, Funny)(Last Journal: Monday November 20, @05:00PM)
In which case, I for one welcome our new robot lawyer overlords. YMMV. VWP. Other conditions may apply.
My BEAM robot has been doing that for years..
(Score:3, Interesting)(http://rtfm.insomnia.org/~qg/ | Last Journal: Wednesday November 16, @07:11AM)
DARPA did it
(Score:2)Re:DARPA did it
(Score:4, Interesting)(http://www.cooldark.com/ | Last Journal: Monday April 26, @05:31PM)
I think you've found a gap (albeit a small one) in the market there.
The head!?
(Score:5, Funny)(http://www.sippan.se/)
Robots are defeated by aiming at the bright, red (sometimes yellow) light that is hidden by thick armor which is unpenetrable by any weapon in the world, but which opens for long amounts of time every once in a while so you can fire at it.
Big deal
(Score:2)(http://www.spacejock.com.au/)
Self repairing robot
(Score:1)(http://chris.brimson-read.com.au/)
Shaun of the Dead reference
(Score:2)(Last Journal: Wednesday January 12, @10:10AM)
'In extreme circumstances, the assailants can be stopped by removing the head or destroying the brain. I will repeat that: By removing the head or destroying the brain.'
Crush, Kill, Destroy
(Score:2)(Last Journal: Monday October 02, @08:42AM)
Nothing new (no disassemble, stephanie)
(Score:1)(http://fbcminneapolis.org/)
Stephanie Speck: You're a machine from that dumb war lab - I am so stupid!
Number 5: Stupid - foolish, gullible, doltish, dumbell.
Rolling your own self-repairer
(Score:2)(http://www.bigbluesaw.com/)
People, you are not getting it
(Score:3, Insightful)(Last Journal: Tuesday November 21, @12:25PM)
For those who have access to university libraries or work for academy, in short, have access to Science here is the movie [sciencemag.org]
This is scary, colleagues.
Does anybody realize, that in the beginning robot only knows that he can move the legs in various directions? Period. That is it, nothing more. The Thing is given the goal: "Must. Move. Forward". In the movie, The Thing, this tetrapod starfish, is laying on the surface, then it gets up and starts crawling. And this crawling itself strikes you with the horrific resemblance to the crawling of real animals, which, I repeat, was not coded. NOT CODED.
Each leg has two joints. I call them "shoulder" and "elbow". After one leg is amputated at the "elbow", The Thing is able to perform the same scary move as before.
Watch the movie, it is worth it, believe me.
Aim for the head and...
(Score:1)I sense injuries ..
(Score:2)Just one frontier left.
(Score:4, Funny)(http://robvincent.net/ | Last Journal: Monday November 06, @10:39AM)
That was about TIME
(Score:1)WoW!
(Score:1)(Last Journal: Monday October 02, @11:42AM)
another article
(Score:1)Obligatory
(Score:2)As far as destroying the part that can readapt when something is destroyed goes:
Better paradigm wins, always.
(Score:1)(Last Journal: Friday November 10, @12:00AM)
Until they start to put a spare brain in every leg.
Well, I for one...
(Score:1)Taking bets...
(Score:1)Brain Nexus
(Score:1)Which is why I had my brain nexus transplanted to my arse. Someone blows my head off, I'll just keep on plowing along
Re:Well...
(Score:4, Funny)Re:Well...
(Score:2)(http://www.cs.cmu.edu/)
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, HTML tags you!
e. e. cummings likes lowercase to avoid the lame(ness) filter.
Re:This is nothing new
(Score:2)What a showoff. The conventional approach for "missing equipment" is driving an SUV.