New robot adapts to injury
Researchers at Cornell University have developed a robot which can adapt to injury. Most robots fail completely if something goes wrong, but this robot uses software to keep moving if, say, a limb is shortened or disabled. The robot maintains a computer model of itself which is adapted when its body or environment changes. Once an existing model no longer fits its ability to move the computer generates hundreds of new ones at random to test against the robot's last known physical movements. The computer calculates which new physical movements would be most effective and uses those. It's all very clever and much better than the solution I came up with for an injured robot: throwing it out the window while screaming obscenities at science.
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NOTE: Video is after the jump dammit. I always thought the whole John Connor bit was a bunch of bullshit. And you know what? I was right for once in my Godforsaken life. This is the video evidence proving what Terminators are REALLY sent back for. Which SPOILER ALERT: is... / Continue →
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This is a video of Macs and PCs transforming into little robot people and battling to the death. Who wins? You'll have to watch to find out! Read: I stopped watching halfway through to go scavenge for food. Well sandwiches don't make themselves! *ahem* Ladies, that was a h... / Continue →
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The new Japanese music robot Miuro, designed to turn an iPod music player into a scuttling boombox-on-wheels, is shown during a press conference in Tokyo Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006. Equipped with speaker systems developed with Japanese audio-maker Kenwood Corp., the 35-centimeter ... / Continue →
