Friday, March 27, 2009

Robot With A Brain!

Whoa! Kevin Warwick at the University of Reading has created a living robot! By spreading rat neurons onto an array of electrodes connected to a simple robot, he and his team have created a robot capable of learning. The robot is equipped with mechanical wheels and a sonar device. When it approaches an object electrical signals sent to the neuron array increase, and in actual biological response, the neurons then send signals to the wheels to adjust its course, avoiding objects in its path. With time the connections between neurons grew stronger, allowing the robot to better navigate its surroundings, literally LEARNING!
Warwick and his team obviously do not see an end in sight. With plans to equip the robot with an audio sensor, enabling communication with the thing, and an infrared sensor, the group at Reading will be pushing the lines that define machines as merely inanimate objects.
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Read the whole article in Seed

2 comments:

  1. what if they could spread some stem cells onto it's arm pits and make little arms?? better yet, why can't someone attach an x-ray device into the back of my eyes, or a geiger counter. or whatever. i want to be an upgraded and improved human being!

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