/ News
Norwegian Robotics Team Designs 3D Printed, Self-Learning Robots
A research team at the Robotics and Intelligent Systems laboratory at the University of Oslo’s Department of Informatics is in the process of designing and programming 3D printed robots that can solve complex tasks in situations where humans cannot be present — for instance, in hazardous landslide areas, compromised nuclear power plants, or deep mines on faraway planets.
The robotics team has designed three generations of self-learning and self-repairing robots. The first robot, a “chicken robot” the team referred to as “Henriette,” taught itself to walk and leap over obstacles. When Henriette lost a leg, it learned without help from its designers and programmers to move about on the one remaining leg.
The second generation of self-learning robots, developed by masters student Tønnes Nygaard, was designed based on a simulation program that calculated what the robot’s body should look like — for instance, how many legs it should have, how long they would be, and what the distance between them would be. Basically, the robot designed itself.
The third and most flexible generation thus far was design fully by the simulation program, which suggested the ideal number of legs and joints for the completed, self-learning and self-repairing robot. According to Associate Professor Kyrre Glette, the process works as follows: “We tell the simulation program what we would like the robot to do, how fast it should walk, its size and energy consumption.” The program runs through thousands of possible configurations and arrives at the best models in a process of artificial evolution.
As the team progressed through the three generations of design, the process became more complicated as they wanted the robots to perform increasingly more complex tasks. The robots, which were all produced via 3D printing, are tested for functionality. The team discovered during the tests, however, that the robots’ “real-world functionalities quite often prove[d] to be different from those of the simulated versions,” as Professor Mats Høvin, another team member, noted.
Closing the gap between the robots’ capacity to learn and practice at the simulation program stage and the real world is currently the challenge of the robotics team. One challenge they’ve given their robots is to test how they confront obstacles as, ideally, one of the primary functions of the self-learning and self-repairing robot will be to respond on its own to unforeseen problems. For example, one scenario the team provided was this: the robot enters the compromised nuclear power plant and encounters a staircase that had not been expected. It responds by taking a photograph of the staircase, analysing the photograph, and then, equipped with its own printer, printing and installing a part that will allow it to navigate the staircase.
In another scenario, a self-learning, self-repairing robot sent into a deep mine on a distant planet would, for example, need to have the capacity to navigate over uneven terrain, climb boulders, and change direction when necessary. As it encountered problems, it would analyze the situation and respond by possibly adding necessary parts — for instance, augmenting its two- or four-legged design and adding another pair of legs that would allow it to crawl crab-like across a rugged surface (as seen in the video).
3D printing is invaluable both in creating the original models of the robots and in its role as an on-board tool for self-enhancing and -repairing in scenarios like the one cited above. “A 3D printer,” elaborates Høvin, “will construct whatever you want it to, layer by layer. This means you won’t have to bother with molds, and you can produce seemingly impossibly complicated structures as a single piece.”
The University of Oslo uses 3D printers that cost between 400,000 NOK (Norwegian Krone, or around $58,000 USD) and 3,000,000 NOK (or about $440,000 USD). As a general rule, of course, the more expensive the printer, the more sophisticated and the better the detail. It isn’t clear at this stage of the research and prototyping what caliber of 3D printer the self-learning, self-repairing robots will utilize.
Let’s hear your thoughts on this amazing use of 3D printing in the 3D Printed Self-learning Robot forum thread on 3DPB.com.
Source: http://3dprint.com/24364/self-learning-robots-oslo/
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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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