Robot Babies Learn To Walk The Right Way

For robots to get 'smart', they have to learn to adapt.   University of Vermont roboticist Josh Bongard has created both simulated and actual robots that, like tadpoles becoming frogs, change their body forms while learning how to walk. Over generations, his simulated robots also 'evolved', spending less time in infant tadpole-like forms and more time in adult four-legged forms. These evolving populations of robots were able to learn to walk more rapidly than those with fixed body forms and, in their final form, the changing robots had developed a sturdier gait,  better able to withstand being knocked with a stick, than the ones that had learned to walk using upright legs from the beginning. read more

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