
Robot With Broken Leg Learns To Walk Again In 2 Minutes - spectruman
https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/robot-with-broken-leg-learns-to-walk-again-in-2-minutes-40b8f24bd26
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jimworm
The "ground contact" parameter while walking sounds functionally very close to
the "proprioception + pain" parameters for animals in a hobbling situation. An
animal (me, specifically) quickly discovers a hobbling strategy by
experimentation and a continuous sense of pain levels.

I think that pain will become a major part of the design in learning robots of
the future.

~~~
nitrogen
_I think that pain will become a major part of the design in learning robots
of the future._

This is something that Hollywood has been warning us about. We _do not want_
to program robots to "feel" pain. We should build in avoidance algorithms, but
not pain.

~~~
bottled_poe
Hollywood? :-(

~~~
nitrogen
I believe fiction plays an important role in shaping the philosophy of
science. Forward-looking science fiction, especially, considers issues that
have yet to be encountered by society, providing the opportunity to decide how
to handle or avoid those issues in advance.

In the case of robots, I was imagining a line from the less-than-serious The
Simpsons, when a robot flees a flaming building, asking, "Why was I programmed
to feel pain?" ( [http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ-
ggzfdsMs](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ-ggzfdsMs) ). Indeed, why would a
robot be designed to suffer when enough suffering exists already? We should
design our non-sentient robots now with that thought in mind, in anticipation
of the possibility of creating self-aware AI.

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aidos
Part of me loves this and the rest of me worries about how little chance I'll
stand surviving the robot apocalypse. The adapted behaviour looks like a
wounded, yet unstoppable, machine hell-bent on carrying out its mission.

In a different life I'd definitely have worked in robotics.

~~~
dm2
Well, I think we'll merge humans and robots before having advanced AI robots.

Basically cyborgs will be the ultimate creation, and since we'll have a human
brain with empathy (hopefully) then we will be able to prevent any uprising
before it happens.

Just look at all the advanced stuff that DARPA is funding and succeeding in
creating. In the next 20 years there is going to be some insanely awesome
technology coming out.

I don't like the idea of creating 2 classes of humans though, (those with
BCIs/other advanced technology embedded in them and those without) that just
seems like it's going to cause a problem.

It would be really nice to have an alien civilization come down and tell us
the potential mistakes to try to avoid when maturing. Technology is so close
to increasing at an exponential rate that something is almost certainly going
to wipe us all off the planet. We'll be very lucky if we don't end up killing
ourselves in the next 50 - 100 years, in my opinion of course.

~~~
jimbokun
"Well, I think we'll merge humans and robots before having advanced AI
robots."

That seems like extremely wishful thinking to me.

Anecdotally, it looks like progress in making machines do human like things is
progressing much more quickly than reverse engineering the human brain.

~~~
arjie
He doesn't mean human-like robots (with a human-like brain). He means a human
brain with partly machine body.

Even that's real damn hard, though, and I'm not optimistic.

~~~
efaref
I thought good progress was already being made with this, with devices like
cochlear implants, retinal implants, and cyborg monkey arms:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxIgdOlT2cY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxIgdOlT2cY)

~~~
dm2
Yep, lots of teams working on BCIs.

The rapid learning by introducing an electric current at a specific certain
parts of the brain: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-
current_sti...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-
current_stimulation)

[http://www.technologyreview.com/view/427177/diy-kit-
overcloc...](http://www.technologyreview.com/view/427177/diy-kit-overclocks-
your-brain-with-direct-current/)

BCIs are getting more and more attention. Imagine being able to hook up a
processor, external storage, or even directly connecting to the internet using
a BCI. Even connecting two brain is possible (and has been done). Some people
say that one day we'll all be one connected organism, when we die just throw
the brains in a big tank and let them live forever, like Futurama.

[http://www.technologyreview.com/news/527561/military-
funds-b...](http://www.technologyreview.com/news/527561/military-funds-brain-
computer-interfaces-to-control-feelings/)

[http://www.army-technology.com/features/featurebrain-
compute...](http://www.army-technology.com/features/featurebrain-computer-
interfacing-military-mind-control/)

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jonmrodriguez
My 8th grade science fair project studied a very simple version of this
problem! I used genetic algorithms to have a 6-legged robot relearn to walk
after 1 leg was injured. It won 1st grand prize in Texas in 2004 :)

~~~
logicallee
How is that a very simple version of the problem :)

~~~
damian2000
Its more of a 'brute force' method ... genetic algorithms take one or more
variables and randomly change them. Then keep iterating on a solution that
works - you don't need to know why something works only that it works better
than the previous solution.

~~~
bmh100
While genetic algorithms are highly iterative and often computationally
expensive approaches to randomized search, they are vastly more efficient
actual brute force methods. It would be better to say "it is more of a
'randomized search' method", especially with the connotations associated to
actual brute force techniques.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_search](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_search)

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ppod
Reminds of these cool evolutionary algorithm simulations:

[http://vimeo.com/79098420](http://vimeo.com/79098420)

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lttlrck
Is it just me or does it look a lot more animal-like when it's limping?

~~~
Karellen
Yeah, it's "pre-damage" gait looks really stiff. As if it's been pre-
programmed, but _not_ been subject to whatever learning algorthims the
researchers have given it to "recover" with.

I think I'd like to see the robot move, after those algorithms have had a
chance to improve it's initial non-damaged gait.

~~~
xymostech
It looks like they did try that, and it moved faster:

> “When the robot is undamaged, our approach yields dynamic gaits that are 30%
> faster than the classic reference gait,” say Cully and co.

However, there don't appear to be videos of that.

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zoba
The second video gave me an idea: it would be really great if the thing was
damaged and could create a model of its damaged self in a simulation... Then
it could play out different gaits (presumably at faster-than-reality speeds)
to determine an optimal new gait. It doesn't seem like this team is too far
away from that.

~~~
cordite
It would take some exercise of movement to quantify the damage and the
resultant qualities.

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MechSkep
Okay... but actual animals do way better:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_full_the_secrets_of_nature_s...](http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_full_the_secrets_of_nature_s_grossest_creatures_channeled_into_robots)

As a rule of thumb, any walking robot that uses servos can't approach the
performance of its animal colleagues. The leg impedance is way too high.

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owlish
I love the part where the sim flips on its back and starts flailing. Thinking
outside the box!

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dang
Url changed from [http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-
hardwar...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-
hardware/hexapod-robot-gets-even-better-at-being-
indestructible#.U9fg3l3jGMI.hackernews), which points to this.

