When Robots Play Games

Roland Piquepaille writes "If the theory of evolution has worked well for us -- even if this is arguable these days -- why not apply it to mobile robots?, asks Technology Research News. Several U.S. researchers just did that and trained neural networks to play the Capture the flag game. Once the neural networks were good enough at the game, they transferred them to the robots' onboard computers. These teams of mobile robots, named EvBots (for Evolution Robots), were then also able to play the game successfully. This method could be used to build environment-aware autonomous robots able to clear a minefield or find heat sources in a collapsed building within 3 to 6 years. But the researchers want to build controllers for robots that adapt to completely unknown environments. And this will not happen before 10 or maybe 50 years. You'll find more details and references in this overview, including a picture of EvBots trying to find their way during a game." Read on for a similar robot competition held this weekend in France.

saunabad writes "The annual Eurobot autonomous robot contest for amateurs is held this weekend on La Férte-Bernard, France. This year's theme is 'coconut rugby,' and the robots are collecting small stress balls from the field and carrying them to the opponent's end, or shooting them in the rugby goal, while avoiding the randomly placed obstacles at the same time. Each team has a one main robot and an optional small assisting robot."

Aimbots...

[criordan]

Aimbots have been around in CS for years. Is this really news?

man 6 robots 0

[Anonymous Coward]

You know all they're going to do is run into each other and explode.

First-aid

[Scrameustache]

find heat sources in a collapsed building within 3 to 6 years.

Yeah, I think the body will be cold by then...

The world needs a collaboration between

[messiuh]

Real Dolls [realdolls.com] and QRIO [sony.net] for me to have any vested interest :-)


Kinda like AI.. only replace Jude Law [imdb.com] and give me Rebecca [imdb.com]

*sigh*... how great the world would be.

They will never win...

[brxndxn]

until they master jumping around while strafing and shooting..

I am not impressed until I see one jump+crouch and scream 'I pwn j00!'

Re:Caution

[KrancHammer]

We hardly at the stage yet where we should start worrying about Matrix or Terminator-esque doomsday scenarios (if ever, those being inventive.. you-know.. fiction).
Start panicking when a autonomous device can navigate stairs. Then the grand anti-robot strategy of walking to the second floor won't work, and we can start worrying.

Evolution Robots???

[keller]

Nope, when they master capture the flag, how soon before these Evil Robots are ready to take over the world...

As long as...

[MajikMan]

...no one asks it to play global thermonuclear war.

I vote we drop capture the flag, and just start up the tic tac toe game right now.

Re:As long as...

[ediron2]

As long as no one asks it to play global thermonuclear war.

Or to play 'Capture the John Conner'.

Re:Sure, sounds like a good idea

[Tablizer]

Also, as tasks become more and more complex, it becomes much more difficult to "evolve" systems that behave exactly as you want them to. There are a number of stories of neural nets being trained to recognize some feature from a set of training inputs, and instead keying in on some completely different and irrelevant detail.

Hmmm. That describes my boss pretty well. I think i'll check for a port on the back of his neck.

Better than rats

[Nf1nk]

I say use lawyers.
now accoirding to http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.pdf there are 952000 lawyers which is almost enough to take care of all the landmines, and if it isn't they keep making more
also lawyers are less lovable than rats, So the trainers will be less attached.