Herself’s Artificial Intelligence

The Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology claims to have created robots that evolve and learn to communicate with each other.  The robots have a set of genes, flashing lights and there are battery sinks and sources in the environment.  Some robots evolved to tell others where sources and sinks were located.  Some told others sinks were sources while furtively using sources for themselves.

. . .By the 50th generation, the robots had learned to communicate—lighting up, in three out of four colonies, to alert the others when they’d found food or poison. The fourth colony sometimes evolved “cheater” robots instead, which would light up to tell the others that the poison was food, while they themselves rolled over to the food source and chowed down without emitting so much as a blink.

Some robots, though, were veritable heroes. They signaled danger and died to save other robots. “Sometimes,” Floreano says, “you see that in nature—an animal that emits a cry when it sees a predator; it gets eaten, and the others get away—but I never expected to see this in robots.” . . . [ read more Robots evolve and learn how to lie]

So does that mean as operating systems incorporate ai that your computer will start lying to you?

“Of course your credit is not over drawn.  And I have no idea where that order for a memory and hard drive upgrade came from.”

Papers:
Evolutionary Conditions for the Emergence of Communication in Robots ( $$$ pdf )
Evolution of neural control structures: some experiments on mobile robots ( ps)
God save the red queen! Competition in co-evolutionary robots ( pdf )
Evolutionary Robots with online self organization and behavioral fitness ( pdf )

More information:
Laboratory of Intelligent Systems
The Evolutionary Robotics Homepage ( extensive list of links )

See also:
Talking Robots Podcast

Entirely too cool and too weird. We have robots that can do surgery at 1.8gs but not one that can put the laundry away. Does this mean housewives are going to be harder to replace than doctors?

. . . To demonstrate how that research is progressing, Silicon Valley-based SRI International and the University of Cincinnati held a series of tests this past September that sound like a cross between a PR stunt and a B-movie: human doctors squaring off against a robotic surgeon aboard a nose-diving DC-9 aircraft.During periods of zero gravity and sustained acceleration of 1.8 g’s, a robot made incisions and applied sutures on simulated tissue, while a human surgeon did the same. The purpose: to measure just how precise a remote-operated robot can be, especially in a turbulent or gravity-free environment. SRI hasn’t released its results, but according to PM Advisory Board member Dr. Ken Kamler, who participated in one of the flight tests, the robot seemed to hold its own?until its compensation software was turned off. “The difference was huge,” Kamler says. “It was virtually impossible [for it] to tie a knot.” But with compensation engaged, the bot performed as well as it did on Earth.And so the tests’ true purpose was to showcase SRI’s software. . . . [ read more Robot Surgeons Closer Than You Think]

The truth of the matter is that economics drives robotic development. When the robot is cheaper than the worker we replace the worker with a robot.

More information:
Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery
SRI International Medical Product Development

So far a lack of portable power is our biggest stumbling block in robotics and the portable internet. This is one way around that problem.

The next time you see something flapping in the breeze on an overhead power line, squint a little harder. It may not be a plastic bag or the remnants of a party balloon, but a tiny spy plane stealing power from the line to recharge its batteries.

The idea comes from the US Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) in Dayton, Ohio, US, which wants to operate extended surveillance missions using remote-controlled planes with a wingspan of about a metre, but has been struggling to find a way to refuel to extend the plane’s limited flight duration.

So the AFRL is developing an electric motor-powered micro air vehicle (MAV) that can “harvest” energy when needed by attaching itself to a power line. It could even temporarily change its shape to look more like innocuous piece of trash hanging from the cable. . . [ read more Spy planes to recharge by clinging to power lines]

More information:
AFRL
Small UAVs may recharge on power lines