In Germany was created a robot dog that learns to walk by itself

Author:
Anna Kholodnova
Date:

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, have created a robot dog that learns to walk by itself.

This is stated on the website of the Institute.

In order to learn to walk, you only need an hour of work. Scientists conducted research to find out how animals learn to walk. They built a dog-sized four-legged robot to help them figure out all the details.

"As engineers and roboticists, we searched for an answer and created a robot that has animal-like reflexes and learns from mistakes," says Felix Ruppert, a former PhD student in the Dynamic Locomotion research group.

The computer program acts as an artificial model of the animalʼs spinal cord and learns to optimize the robotʼs movements in a short time. The artificial neural network inside it quickly self-adjusts. A robot learns to walk when an algorithm constantly compares sent and expected information from sensors, triggers reflex cycles and adapts motor control patterns.

In this way, artificial intelligence imitates the neuron networks of a living organism and creates movement instructions for the mechanism. If the robot falls, the algorithm adjusts the order. This continues until the robot dog learns to walk.