'Quick recovering' robots can be great for rescue missions

If robots can learn how to work in damaged situation, they can prove to be very helpful for our society in the rescue and search missions.

A new paper, 'Robots That Can Adapt Like Animals' shows how robots can be pursued to recover from injury automatically in less than two minutes.

The study has shown how a six-legged robot adapts to walking even if two of its legs are broken. It also shows a robotic arm that learned how to correctly place an object even with several broken motors.

Taking inspiration from the adaptation power of animals, author Jean-Baptise Mouret said that when injured, animals do not start learning from scratch, instead, they have intuitions about different ways to behave.

She added that these intuitions allow them to intelligently select different behaviors to try out, and after these tests, they choose the one that works in spite of the injury, and thus, we made robots that can do the same.

This trial and error allows robots to adapt to unforeseen situations, including adapting to new environments and inventing new behaviors.

The researchers for this purpose have developed an Intelligent Trial and Error system that involves two steps i.e. creating the behavior-performance map and adapting to an unforeseen situation.

Danesh Tarapore claims that this technique will enable the creation of robots that can help rescuers without requiring their continuous attention and it will also make the creation of personal robotic assistants that can continue to be helpful even when a part is broken easy.