The Droid Life

Thirteen years ago, Japan began its “Century of the Brain” program. The ambitious program includes three objectives: Understanding the Brain, Protecting the Brain, and Creating the Brain. Yes, that’s right, creating the brain. In true Frankenstein fashion, the idea is that we can better understand the brain if we can build one. Simple enough, right?

But don’t picture grey goo in a jar in a mad scientist’s lab just yet. Japanese scientists are trying to simulate brains by building robots and computers that operate according to the same principles as our noggins. This is a good idea because while using cells and tissues to build a real brain might soon be possible, we would be limited in our ability to measure the functioning of free floating grey matter. Humanoid robots help us overcome this problem: we can build robots that operate like human brains but plug into sensors and other apparatuses that measure how the “brain” interacts with its environment. As a result, scientists are moving towards being able to measure learning, intelligence, even emotion in droid-like machines. 

C3PO, meet DB: DB’s 30+ skills include reinforcement learning, air-hockey, juggling and tennis swings. (Kawato 2008, Brain).

References:

Kawato, M. 2008. Brain controlled robots. HFSP J. 2(3): 136–142.

Kawato, M. 2008. From ‘Understanding the Brain by Creating the Brain’ towards manipulative neuroscience. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 363(1500): 2201–2214.

~ by mia27 on October 25, 2009.