Self-adapting robots, Artificial intelligence in medicine, Ageing healthily

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're becoming more reliant on robots to assist in hostile zones from extinguishing forest fires to bomb disposal to decontaminating nuclear facilities. But whereas humans can quickly adapt to injuries, current robots cannot 'think outside the box' to find a new behaviour when they get damaged. Tracey Logan speaks to computer scientist Jeff Clune who's developed a new way to allow robots to adapt to damage in less than two minutes. It will enable more robust, effective, autonomous robots, and may shed light on the principles that animals use to adapt to injury.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Hello, I'm Tracey Logan and this is the BBC Inside Science Podcast, first broadcast on Thursday, the 28th of May 2015.
0:44.0	Turns and Conditions at BBC.co. UK forward slash radio 4.
0:48.0	Well it wasn't in the Queen's speech but according to the Royal Society it's key to a nation's success,
0:53.7	why the science of artificial intelligence is set to transform our futures.
0:58.5	Also in this edition, slumbering into a healthy old age,
1:02.1	what the hibernating habits of cute little lemas can teach us about
1:06.0	living well into our dotage.
1:08.6	And virtual reality in the fight against racism, just one of the many stories from a major gathering of psychologists in New York.
1:16.5	But first, preparations are now underway for a return to the Red Planet.
1:21.2	Next year the European Exo-Mars Orbiter will be launched and in 2018 its robot rover.
1:27.0	The UK aerospace facility where the rover will be assembled is just starting its three-month sterilization.
1:33.0	The Stephen Age Laboratory must be made spotless before any robot parts are brought in.
1:38.0	The challenges facing the rover when it reaches the Red Planet will be immense, not least, likely damage to wheels or
1:44.9	chassis from rough terrain. Its ability to adapt to such damage and fast without human assistance
1:51.2	will be critical to the mission success.
1:54.0	This week Nature magazine has clues to how that could be done.
	...

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