Most real robots you see nowadays are really nothing more than overachieving remote controlled toys. These automatons provide the ooh’s and ahh’s from watchers for about 2.7 seconds before they move on to the next neat novelty.

Granted they are getting better and better, but for the most part, these machines are based on advanced computer principles than human ones, and those that purport to be more human-like are nothing more than overhyped automatons only slightly smarter than your toaster.

But now scientists in La Jolla, California’s Neurosciences Institute (NSI) have created a robot called “Darwin VII” that operates on biological principles than computing ones.

The trashcan-shaped robot has what works like 20,000 “brain cells.” It uses a CCD camera for vision, microphones for its hearing, and various sensors for touch and taste, as well as effectors and manipulators for ambulatory movement and articulation.

The robot is currently in an “infant” stage not just figuratively but literally in that it can crawl across a floor and grab objects, all without human help or preconfigured instructions. It even has what resembles a ‘mind’ that is impressionable and displays human-like traits such as a desire to learn.

It explores its environment and is already beginning to adapt to it. Its exploration is driven by instincts instead of instructions, and has developed a liking for tasting things, with an almost natural perceptiveness and view of what tastes good or not, something that isn’t too far off the way children also develop, and how the way they explore their own surroundings develops its own brain cells.

It is reported to already know for example, that certain types of blocks taste good while spotted ones do not.

The approximately 20,000 brain cells it is currently reported to have may not sound much when compared to humans, but it’s a huge leap in the development of robots. And given the rapid development of computers as basis, it shouldn’t take very long before the quantity of such brain cells will multiply quickly, giving it whole new capabilities.


New Scientist | NetIndia | NewKerala

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