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Robots That Learn Through Repetition, Not Programming
Eugene Izhikevich thinks you shouldn’t have to write code in order to teach robots new tricks. “It should be more like training a dog,” he says. “Instead of programming, you show it consistent examples of desired behavior.”
Izhikevich’s startup, Brain Corporation, based in San Diego, has developed an operating system for robots called BrainOS to make that possible. To teach a robot running the software to pick up trash, for example, you would use a remote control to repeatedly guide its gripper to perform that task. After just minutes of repetition, the robot would take the initiative and start doing the task for itself. “Once you train it, it’s fully autonomous,” says Izhikevich, who is cofounder and CEO of the company.
Izhikevich says the approach will make it easier to produce low-cost service robots capable of simple tasks. Programming robots to behave intelligently normally requires significant expertise, he says, pointing out that the most successful home robot today is the Roomba, released in 2002. The Roomba is preprogrammed to perform one main task: driving around at random to cover as much of an area of floor as possible.
Brain Corporation hopes to make money by providing its software to entrepreneurs and companies that want to bring intelligent, low-cost robots to market. Later this year, Brain Corporation will start offering a ready-made circuit board with a smartphone processor and BrainOS installed to certain partners. Building a trainable robot would involve connecting that “brain” to a physical robot body.
The chip on that board is made by mobile processor company Qualcomm, which is an investor in Brain Corporation. At the Mobile Developers Conference in San Francisco last week, a wheeled robot with twin cameras powered by one of Brain Corporation’s circuit boards was trained live on stage.
In one demo, the robot, called EyeRover, was steered along a specific route around a chair, sofa, and other obstacles a few times. It then repeated the route by itself. In a second demo, the robot was taught to come when a person beckoned to it. One person held one hand close to the robot’s twin cameras, so that EyeRover could lock onto it. A second person then maneuvered the robot forward and back in synchronization with the trainer’s hand. After being led through a rehearsal of the movements just twice, the robot correctly came when summoned.
Those quick examples are hardly sophisticated. But Izhikevich says more extensive training conducted over days or weeks could teach a robot to perform a more complicated task such as pulling weeds out of the ground. A company would need to train only one robot, and could then copy its software to new robots with the same design before they headed to store shelves.
Brain Corporation’s software is based on a combination of several different artificial intelligence techniques. Much of the power comes from using artificial neural networks, which are inspired by the way brain cells communicate, says Izhikevich. Brain Corporation was previously collaborating with Qualcomm on new forms of chip that write artificial neural networks into silicon (see “Qualcomm to Build Neuro-Inspired Chips”). Those “neuromorphic” chips, as they are known, are purely research projects for the moment. But they might eventually offer a more powerful and efficient way to run software like BrainOS.
Brain Corporation previously experimented with reinforcement learning, where a robot starts out randomly trying different behaviors, and a trainer rewards it with a virtual treat when it does the right thing. The approach worked, but had its downsides. “Robots tend to harm themselves when they do that,” says Izhikevich.
Training robots through demonstration is a common technique in research labs, says Manuela Veloso, a robotics professor at Carnegie Mellon University. But the technique has been slower to catch on in the world of commercial robotics, she says. The only example on the market is the two-armed Baxter robot, aimed at light manufacturing. It can be trained in a new production line task by someone manually moving its arms to direct it through the motions it needs to perform (see “This Robot Could Transform Manufacturing”).
Sonia Chernova, an assistant professor in robotics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, says that most other industrial robot companies are now working to add that type of learning to their own robots. But she adds that training could be tricky for mobile robots, which typically have to deal with more complex environments.
Izhikevich acknowledges that training a robot via demonstration, while faster than programming it, produces less predictable behavior. You wouldn’t want to use the technique to ensure that an autonomous car could detect jaywalkers, for example, he says. But for many simple tasks, it could be acceptable. “Missing 2 percent of the weeds or strawberries you were supposed to pick is okay,” he says. “You can get them tomorrow.”
Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/530871/robots-that-learn-through-repetition-not-programming/
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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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