Complexity Digest 2008.19 - 07.01

8-May-2008

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Piecing Together The Next Generation Of Cognitive Robots, Science Daily Bookmark and Share

Excerpts:
European researchers are making progress on piecing together a new generation of machines that are more aware of their environment and better able to interact with humans. (Credit: Image courtesy of ICT Results)
"The integration of different components in an ACS ["Artificial Cognitive System", Ed.] is one of the greatest challenges in robotics," Kruijff says. "Getting robots to understand their environment from visual inputs and to interact with humans from spoken commands and relate what is said to their environment is enormously complex."

Because of the complexity most robots developed to date have tended to be reactive. They simply react to their environment rather than act in it autonomously. Similar to a beetle that scuttles away when prodded, many mobile robots back off when they collide with an object, but have little self-awareness or understanding of the space around them and what they can do there.