CAS lab develops robots modeled
on the human brain
(March 1, 2012) Massimiliano “Max” Versace sits in a
conference room at BU’s Neuromorphics Laboratory. The lab director is holding
one of the lab’s frequent visitors—his infant son, who is looking intently at
his father. “This is a great example of a general-purpose learning machine,”
Versace says—and he is only half joking.
Versace has been discussing the
lab’s primary goal: to build an artificial intelligence that is smarter than
any robot yet created. As every parent knows, babies have astonishing brains;
they take in a wealth of information from the senses and over time learn how to
move around, communicate, and begin to make independent decisions. Compared to
a baby—or even the simplest animal—computers are sorely lacking in learning
ability. Even sophisticated robots and software programs can accomplish only
tasks they’re specifically programmed to do, and their ability to learn is
limited by their programming. A Roomba® may manage to clean your house with
random movements, but it doesn’t learn which rooms collect the most dirt or
what is the least distracting time of day to clean.