Machines' "many little lives" *: An experimental robotic platform to investigate the fundamental and necessary ingredients for life-like artificial sy

机器的“许多小生命”*：一个实验性机器人平台，用于研究类似生命的人造系统的基本和必要成分

• 批准号: 2593535
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2593535
• 关键词: Machines; many; little; lives; experimental

This project aims to build a soft, three-level artificial platform to systematically test life-like properties like equilibrium, emergence, robustness, and learning. The objectives are listed below and detailed in later sections: 1. Build tensegrity modules with multiple equilibria that will (passively) sense and react to a simple environment2. Implement CPG-like oscillators for modules, capable to sense sensory information across the network and perform short-range communication with adjacent modules to achieve locomotion 3. Connect levels 1 and 2 with artificial neural long-distance connections stimulating the lower levels and investigate whether the system can be trained to express simple forms of learning (e.g., habituation)4. Successful learning would enable us to address how information moves across scales in a system and offer opportunities to investigate the possibility of (i) "artificial chimaeras", i.e., merging two tensegrity modules trained to reach different equilibrium points and observe what the result is, and/or (ii) "robot cancer", that is, how a single module breaking communication with others (as suggested by [16]) will affect the network.

该项目旨在构建一个软的三层人工平台，系统地测试平衡、涌现、鲁棒性和学习等类似生命的属性。下面列出了这些目标，并在后面的部分中详细介绍： 1. 构建具有多个平衡的张拉整体模块，该模块将（被动）感知简单环境并对其做出反应2。为模块实现类似 CPG 的振荡器，能够感知整个网络的感官信息并与相邻模块进行短程通信以实现运动 3. 将级别 1 和 2 与刺激较低级别的人工神经长距离连接连接起来，并研究是否系统可以被训练来表达简单的学习形式（例如，习惯）4。成功的学习将使我们能够解决信息如何在系统中跨尺度移动的问题，并提供机会来研究（i）“人工嵌合体”的可能性，即合并两个经过训练以达到不同平衡点的张拉整体模块并观察结果是什么，和/或（ii）“机器人癌症”，即单个模块中断与其他模块的通信（如[16]所示）将如何影响网络。