Researchers Using AI To Build Robotic Bees 44
An anonymous reader writes "British researchers at the Universities of Sussex and Sheffield are developing a computer model of a bee's brain that they hope can help scientists better understand the brains of more-complex animals, such as humans, and perhaps power artificial intelligence systems for bee-like robots. Called 'Green Brain,' the project is trying to advance the science of AI beyond systems that just follow a predetermined set of rules, and into an area where AI systems can actually act autonomously and respond to sensory signals."
Promising... (Score:2)
...every good project has to start somewhere - and it will be interesting to see what this kind of AI modeling will accomplish. Perhaps we can learn more about bees, and how to keep them doing their busy work throughout our world without mass murdering them. ...that being said... the day they crack the secrets of modelling the human female's brain... there is where the real money will be made.
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To me it seems that they should figure out how the single celled stuff (like amoebae and neutrophils) think before they go on to more complex stuff.
From what I see they seem smarter than most people (including many scientists) assume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_xh-bkiv_c [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvOz4V699gk&feature=related [youtube.com]
http://www.brianjford.com/a-08-12-infocus_cell-intelligence.pdf [brianjford.com]
Have our AIs reached the level of intelligence of an Euglypha amoeba, which builds a pretty decent shell for
Curiosity. (Score:3)
A certain Mars Rover comes to mind.
Bee Brain (Score:5, Funny)
{
if (x.type == FLOWER) {
nuzzle_flower(x);
}
else if (x.type == HUMAN) {
sting(x);
}
else if (x.type == SMOKE) {
sleep(1);
}
else {
buzz();
}
}
Industrial Apiculture (Score:2)
"The bees are fine," said the beekeeper.
While visiting a farmer's market this summer, I asked a beekeeper, "How are the bees?"
I was concerned that he had not understood my full message, so I amplified: "Nationally, I mean ... globally ... Colony Collapse Disorder ...?"
"There is no 'Colony Collapse Disorder'," he assured me. "This is an industry bugaboo, a distraction from the real problem, which is industrial-scale beekeeping.
"Oh, there are bees with mites, and diseases. But the real problem is industrial
Re:Bee Brain (Score:4, Funny)
for (x in recognize_nearby_objects())
{
if (x.type == FLOWER) {
nuzzle_flower(x);
}
else if (x.type == HUMAN) {
sting(x);
}
else if (x.type == SMOKE) {
sleep(1);
}
else {
buzz();
}
}
Dalek Bees! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
sting(x);
die();
FTFY
These post titles really are sensationlist lately (Score:1)
Perhaps bee-like robots. Or robots that function as bees do, where they perform mundane functions over and over for the good of society.
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Scale this up (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Scale this up (Score:4, Interesting)
Logistically, if the swarm could not manufacture new units, and or, collect and repair damaged/errant units, the system has serious vulnerabilities.
take for instance, the human greed factor.
If there is a huge swarm of autonomous robots out scouring riverbed sandbars for teensy gold nuggets, or some other discrete but scattered and valuable resource, how long do you think it would be before unscrupulous people tried to trick the bees into dropping the cargo off at a "new" dropoff point?
Where there is profit, there will always be dirty dealing and crime. Look at the internet for instance, with something seemingly as harmless as email. Then along came the spammer.
Autocollecting robot swarms would be a smorgasboard for whitecollar criminals.
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Autocollecting robot swarms would be a smorgasboard for whitecollar criminals.
That's why we're also working on the escort model: Flying RoboShark with frickin laser beams on thier heads.
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The algorithm could be used for more than just pollination. Think about it. Build anything of the appropriate size to autonomously go out and collect $RESOURCE, return with a load, refuel itself and go back out. Some cursory self-defense, like hazard evasion, would be nice. Throw in some networked communication to help with discovery of sources and you have a very efficient way to accumulate stuff.
If they're going to include these behaviors, they ought to model Weaver ants instead.
It'll never happen. (Score:1)
Shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo make me realise we will just never understand the human brain.
Re: (Score:2)
Shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo make me realise we will just never understand the human brain.
Shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo make me think that the (average) human brain isn't that complicated after all.
Tonight on SyFy... (Score:3)
Irwin Allen and James Cameron proudly present:
THE SWARMINATOR!
Obligatory Simpsons (Score:2)
Homer: Bart, you’re coming home.
Bart: I want to stay here with Mr. Burns.
Burns: I suggest you leave immediately.
Homer: Or what? You’ll release the dogs, or the bees, or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you? Well, go ahead—do your worst!
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Burns: Release the robotic Richard Simmons.
I, for one, welcome, our new (Score:2)
emphasis on fidelity over complexity in neural simulation.
Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with programming a brain.. (Score:4, Interesting)
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Apparently brain-emulation technology is to the point where emulating an entire bee brain in real time is feasible
It's not. They are emulating a simplification of a bee's brain. Everyone else doing brain modeling is simplifying things as well. Do the simplifications make a difference? This is a question no one actually knows.
Why not simulate the world too? (Score:1)
Why go through the trouble of building an actual physical bee, when there are awesome 3d world and physics models that you could drop the bee brain into and it would have no idea the world was simulated. Seems like that would bee a lot easier debug. *cringe*
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Natural system software incorporates rules that have builtin support for uncertainty.
Ever wondered why it takes so goddamn much processing power to fold a model of a protein? (They don't call brownian motion a "random walk" for no reason you know.)
The nervous system of that bee is fudementally influenced by biochemical interactions at thousands of locations, each incorporating a degree of randomness into the system. Instead of treating the randomness as noise, the design utilizes the randomness as an asset.
Monthy Python - Eric the Half a Bee (Score:3)
Is this a wretched demibee,
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
NO! It's Eric the half-a-bee!
Release the hounds! (Score:2)
But did they also make robot dogs as a robotic bee launching platform when they bark???