Robots Develop Self-Organized Behaviors, New Study Reveals

Researchers are examining the emergence of sensorimotor intelligence in robotic systems, where robots are developing self-taught behaviors without instructions, according to a study at the Institute for Science and Technology, Austria.

The "brains" or artificial neural networks in robots have a tendency of performing new actions on their own, and for years this has been difficult for researchers to figure out. In their study, the researchers found that the self-taught behaviors in robots can be caused directly in the synaptic plasticity of the nervous system, the researchers revealed in a news release.

In their experiment, the researchers used bio-inspired robots, which consisted of a humanoid and a hexapod robot in physical, realistic computer simulations. They have sensory inputs from their bodies, however, they were not given any tasks or instructions to perform.

The researchers found that the artificial neural network, (the brain of the robot) allows robots to quickly obtain and adapt feedbacks from their environments and situations, and they develop a sensorimotor intelligence, according to the researchers.

In the experiment, different situations showed how they robots acquired the ability to crawl or walk on changing surfaces, and cooperate with another robot. The researchers claimed that the synaptic plasticity allowed a simple neural network to generate constructive movements for any given body. This leads to understanding the preliminary stages of sensorimotor development in the natural world and even some evolution theories.

The findings of this study were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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