Here is where man and machine relationship gets
rough. We know that there is a certain competition between man and machine when
it comes to many human jobs. What if machines were not modeled to do selected
tasks, but modeled after humans? Now things are starting to heat up. Though the idea
is not new-iRobot, Terminator, Transformers- the field of animalistic behaviorial
robotics has never been this far. Accoring to an essay in Science, “Self-Organization, Embodiment and Biologically InspiredRobots” by Preifer, Lungarella and Iidal the modeling of not just humans, but
all living organisms to robots is the real deal.
This simple diagram shows the simple process of
stimulation and reactions in biology. Everyone reacts to stimuli whether it is
being pinched or failing a test. For instance a failed test starts off
as a stimulus and then the information is sent to “controller” or brain and
then signals a motor reaction like rage.
The embodiment of motor reactions is a science with
in itself. The modeling of skills certain organisms exposed to a highly
stimulated environment. Like when a cricket phonotaxis (finds a mate). Finding a
suitable mate for a cricket is no easy task. Imagine a room full of men beating their chests
and howling some indistinct mating call. The female crickets must overcome this
type of stimuli in order to find the maximum suitable male. The robotics are
mimicking this type of behavior with many sensory, memory and mechanical
devices.
This figure shows an array of sophisticated devices
that emulate natural organisms. Bio-modeling will create robots that can do far
more complicated tasks. The gap between the natural systems and artificial is
becoming smaller and smaller. These designs provide insight to biology just as much
as creating robots with of human instincts.
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