Humanoid soldiers: reverse engineering the brain may accelerate robotics research.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Robot Technology

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ORLANDO -- The vision in the 2004 summer blockbuster film iRobot was a world where humanoid robots work side by side with their masters.

Sometime in the next 90 years, science fiction will become science fact, some robotics experts predict.

Machines that walk upright will assist civilians and the military alike, said Stefan Schaal, associate professor of computer science and neuroscience at the University of Southern California.

"We should at some point be able to create an artificial human being and I think humanoid robots are currently the first step toward that," he said at the Army Science conference.

"This is going to happen," he predicted. "And it's going to happen in this century."

It may not be as "polished" as the iRobot movie, he added.

"While other experts noted that there are huge technological hurdles to overcome, basic research continues on several critical technologies such as vision, movement and computational models that will allow robots to "think" like humans.

A parallel effort to map--or reverse engineer--the human brain is going to give robotics experts inspiration that will allow them to create these advanced models, researchers at the conference said.

The National Academy of Engineering is spearheading this "Grand Challenge." Just as researchers successfully mapped the human genome earlier in the decade, the engineering community--not normally thought of as being a part of the life science discipline--says there will be a dear benefit to a Herculean effort to figure out exactly how the human mind works.

"If we could determine the software of the human brain, we could embed all sorts of systems so as to provide human like quality for machines," said John Parmentola, director of research and laboratory management at the Army office of the deputy assistant secretary for research and technology.

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Neural models will enable robots to better perceive, think, plan and act, said James Albus of the Krasnow Institute at George Mason University, Va.

"Significant economic and military applications will develop undoubtedly early in this century and in fact are already developing," he said.

There are numerous other applications as well, including artificial retinas or ear implants for the visually or hearing impaired, and artificial limbs for the handicapped, said an academy fact sheet.

"Reverse engineering the brain is clearly one of the great challenges of the century and I believe there will be a lot of progress," said Schaal.

Currently robots can be programmed to do simple tasks, but for a humanoid robot to work and live alongside people, they will be required to operate in the real world--not in tightly controlled laboratories or factories.

Computer modeling works fine for stationary robots working on an automobile assembly line by performing the same spot welding task over and over again. But put a robot outside and command it to walk from point A to point B--that is another matter.

You can't model everything, Schaal said. The robot has to learn and adapt to myriad scenarios.

Schaal showed videos of robots in laboratories...