A factory robot, for instance, could detect that something isn’t moving right, and compensate or call for assistance. The authors argue that this ability is important as we need autonomous systems to be more self-reliant.
The ability of robots to model themselves without being assisted by engineers is important for many reasons: Not only does it save labor, but it also allows the robot to keep up with its own wear-and-tear, and even detect and compensate for damage. Credit: Columbia Engineering Self-modeling robots will lead to more self-reliant autonomous systems “As the robot moved, the flickering cloud gently followed it.” The robot’s self-model was accurate to about 1% of its workspace.Ī technical summary of the study. “It was a sort of gently flickering cloud that appeared to engulf the robot’s three-dimensional body,” said Lipson. “But you can’t just peek into a neural network, it’s a black box.” After the researchers struggled with various visualization techniques, the self-image gradually emerged. “We were really curious to see how the robot imagined itself,” said Hod Lipson, professor of mechanical engineering and director of Columbia’s Creative Machines Lab, where the work was done. Even damage to its body was automatically detected and corrected. The researchers explain how their robot built a kinematic model of itself in a recent paper published in Science Robotics, and how it utilized that model to plan movements, accomplish objectives, and avoid obstacles in a range of scenarios. A team at Columbia Engineering revealed today that they have developed a robot that, for the first time, can learn a model of its whole body from scratch without any human aid. Humans develop our body models as infants, and robots are starting to do the same. Your brain is continuously preparing for movement while you play ball or get dressed so that you can move your body without bumping, tripping, or falling. Our perception of our bodies is not always correct or realistic, as any athlete or fashion-conscious person knows, but it’s a crucial factor in how we behave in society. A robot created by Columbia Engineers learns to understand itself rather than the environment around it. An artist’s concept of a robot learning to imagine itself.
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