January 20, 2011

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In a first-of-its-kind experiment, a University of Vermont scientist created robots that, like tadpoles becoming frogs, change their body forms while learning how to walk. These evolving robots learned to walk more rapidly than robots with fixed bodies and developed a more robust gait. The research suggests that the quest for adaptive and resilient robots can arrive at better designs by encouraging co-evolution of a robot's body and "brain" (controller) at the same time.Full Story

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University of Vermont

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