Robot learns
to reproduce
Wednesday, 30 August, 2000, 19:55
GMT 20:55 UK
Back
in the 1950s, science fiction writers predicted that
by now robots would be part of everyday life.
A way round this problem is to let
robots develop and construct themselves. And taking a
leaf out of evolution's book, Hod Lipson and Jordan
Pollack, of Brandeis University in Massachusetts, US,
have done just that.
They have developed a computer
system that uses natural selection to design and
automatically build robots.
"We carefully minimized human
intervention in both the design and fabrication
stages," said Professor Pollack in the journal
Nature.
"The only human work was in
informing the simulation about the 'universe' that
could be manufactured."
Evolutionary path
Research could pave the way
for sophisticated robots
|
The basic design was simple, with no
resemblance at all to the sophisticated androids of
science fiction.
Instead the research team started
with a handful of virtual rods, actuators and cables
in a computer.
Using sophisticated software that
imitates evolution these basic components were then
allowed to "evolve" towards a machine with
one goal - moving horizontally.
Combinations of rods, actuators and
cable "nerves" which proved the most mobile
were encouraged to thrive and reproduce. Less mobile
arrangements - evolutionary dead-ends - were allowed
to die out.
Generations
After 600 generations had passed,
the most successful mobile virtual robot design was
permitted to build a real version of itself in plastic
using a prototyping machine.
From the researchers' point of view,
the important thing was that the robot worked in just
the way predicted by its virtual ancestor.
Robots have traditionally been
designed to be able to operate autonomously.
Now that design and construction
have also been automated, self-reproducing machines
that might, one day, merit the term "artificial
life" are a step closer.
Sophisticated robots like the
Terminator are still many years into the future, but
scientists working on artificial intelligence have
welcomed the experiment as significant.
"This is a long-awaited and
necessary step towards the ultimate dream of
self-reproducing machines," said Rodney Brooks,
director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Related Links:
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