Berlin researchers develop a robot that can learn to
navigate through its environment guided by external stimuli
Researchers of Freie Universität Berlin, of the Bernstein
Fokus Neuronal Basis of Learning, and of the Bernstein Center Berlin and have
developed a robot that perceives environmental stimuli and learns to react to
them. The scientists used the relatively simple nervous system of the honeybee
as a model for its working principles. To this end, they installed a camera on
a small robotic vehicle and connected it to a computer. The computer program
replicated in a simplified way the sensorimotor network of the insect brain.
The input data came from the camera that—akin to an eye—received and projected
visual information. The neural network, in turn, operated the motors of the
robot wheels—and could thus control its motion direction.