/ News
Robots are learning to walk and run at Delft University
Leo and Phides – two planar biped robots built at the Delft University of Technology – are walking and running, respectively. Leo improved its walking gait through reinforcement learning, which shapes behavior by rewarding success and punishing failure. Phides, the running robot, has achieved an impressive flight phase (the period in a running stride in which both feet are off the ground).
Reinforcement learning (RL) normally favors computer simulation, not only because the hundreds (if not thousands) of trials can be run faster, but because real hardware would likely break down from the stress. Leo was built to test how RL would work in the real world. "Too little is yet known about the compatibility with real, actual hardware," explains PhD candidate Erik Schuitema. "It is a strength of TU Delft that it is able to create that very combination."
To prevent Leo from falling apart, Schuitema gave it a head start by providing it with a walking gait that it could learn from and improve upon. Leo's task is further simplified with the help of a stabilizing boom, which keeps its hip axis horizontal, but doesn't prevent the robot from falling forward or backward. Thanks to the boom, it needs just three servos per leg (rather than the usual six). All of its computing is handled by the robot's on-board computer, which has a 1.2 GHz VIA processor and 1 GB of RAM running Linux.
"If the hardware could be made more knock-proof, a robot like Leo could indeed learn to walk all by itself," Schuitema said. The process would likely take about five hours. "The work is still in its very early days. It could still be decades before these kinds of robots can get busy in practice," he added. The hope is that – some day – service robots would learn how to function in the real world on their own, without having to be programmed at all. Another approach is teaching by demonstration, which allows even non-programmers to train a robot to perform simple tasks.
Leo learns to walk
Researchers at the same lab have also developed a running biped robot called Phides, that can reach speeds of 2.2 mph (3.5 km/h) with a flight phase of 54 percent of each stride. This one didn't use reinforcement learning, but it too relies on a boom for horizontal stabilization, making it a two-dimensional robot similar to the University of Michigan's MABEL.
Due to size differences, it's difficult to compare it to MABEL: Phides stands a mere 31 inches (80 cm) tall and weighs 29 pounds (13.5 kg). "The key design feature of this robot is the actuation mechanism for the knees," the team writes in the YouTube video description. "Phides' knees have a series elastic actuator as well as a parallel spring ... constructed of fiberglass leaf springs from a crossbow" – which has got to be a world first!
Phides running
Source: Delft Biorobotics Lab via TU Delft news
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/robots-learn-to-walk-run-delft-university/25154/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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