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| people:xinyu_chen:wgw [2014/10/24 00:23] – xychen | people:xinyu_chen:wgw [2014/10/26 20:23] (current) – xychen |
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| [[http://youtu.be/lLULRlmXkKo?t=0m02s|This are Grey's tortoises.]] | [[http://youtu.be/lLULRlmXkKo?t=0m02s|This are Grey's tortoises.]] |
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| {{ :people:xinyu_chen:maxresdefault.jpg?300|}}In 1951, Dr. W.Grey Walter displayed his `tortoises' at the Festival of Britain. These robots were designed to show the interaction of two sensory systems: a light-sensitive and a touch-sensitive control mechanisms. One vacuum tube was used to simulate two interconnected neurons. These simple amplifier circuits connected two sensors to two motors. The first sensor was a photocell and it was connected to the drive and steering motors. The second sensor was a contact switch that indicated that the turtle’s “shell” had bumped into something; this sent the vacuum-tube amplifiers into oscillation and changed the robot’s direction. This circuitry allowed the turtles to wander a room and return to a hutch to recharge their batteries. | {{ :people:xinyu_chen:maxresdefault.jpg?300|}}In 1951, Dr. W.Grey Walter displayed his `tortoises' at the Festival of Britain. His electric toy simulated two basic characteristics of animal behavior:goal-seeking and scanning. The designer-endowed goal was moderate illumination. One vacuum tube was used to simulate two interconnected neurons. The first sensor was a photocell and it was connected to the drive and steering motors. The second sensor was a contact switch that indicated that the turtle’s “shell” had bumped into something. The simple actions of stop, back up ,turn allowed the turtles to move around or avoid obstacles. They could wander a room and return to a hutch to recharge batteries. His two papers, "An Imitation of Life" in 1950, "A Machine that Learns" in 1951 and his book "The Living Brain" in 1963 were widely read and studied. |
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| From the simple neural circuitry, several sophisticated behaviors arose. Under normal operation, the steering motor turned slowly with the drive motor at half speed. This scanned the photocell and produced an arcing motion. When the photocell detected a bright-enough light, the turning stopped and the robot headed towards it. This demonstrated simple phototropic(light attracted) behavior. Once the light detected by the photocell became too bright, though, the steering motor began turning; this demonstrated photophobic(light avoiding) behavior. If the shell struck an object, then the system would oscillate until it successfully avoided the object. The robot could adjust its behavior according to the information it got from its "event-window". | The technique he used are reflected in today’s biologically-inspired robots. These are the B.E.A.M philosophy. The acronym BEAM is standing for: Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, Mechanics. Biology means we look the nature for inspirations, to solve our problems; Electronics is the technology for us to get our creations work; Aesthetics means that something "looks cool" rather than something crappy though they may work; Mechanics is an intelligent design such as your robot can get around without optical or touch switches. |
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| Although the original intention was to study the basis of simple reflex actions and to test his theory on complex behavior arising from neural interconnections, Dr. Grey's successful experiments with these robots had great influences on the birth of science of cybernetics. His two papers, "An Imitation of Life" in 1950, "A Machine that Learns" in 1951 and his book "The Living Brain" in 1963 were widely read and studied. | ==== Papers and Books ==== |
| | *{{:people:xinyu_chen:walter50imitation.pdf|An Imitation of Life(1950)}} |
| The technique he used are reflected in today’s reactive and biologically-inspired robots such as those based on the B.E.A.M philosophy. Here the acronym BEAM is standing for: Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, Mechanics. Biology means we look the nature for inspirations, to solve our problems; Electronics is the technology for us to get our creations work; Aesthetics means that something "looks cool" rather than something crappy though they may work; Mechanics is an intelligent design such as your robot can get around without optical or touch switches. | *{{:people:xinyu_chen:walter51learns.pdf|A Machine that Learns(1951)}} |
| | *The Living Brains(1963) |
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