Robots could be used in earthquake rescue missions

This is the vision of inventors Erwin Prassler and Ivan Bratko, who have developed a software algorithm that takes data from a robot’s sensors as it moves through an area to create models and predict how objects in the vicinity will change their position relative to its movements.

Using the same algorithm, Bratko said that the robot can learn physical concepts such as whether an object is moveable and where it can be moved to. He added that it also gives the robot the ability to learn ‘abstract concepts’ such as the structural stability of an object.

Current pre-programmed robots are limited to single tasks and cannot perform any new tasks or cope with unforeseen operational conditions.

Prassler of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences in Germany and Bratko from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia set out to solve that problem through the EU-funded XPERO project. The project, which has now come to a successful conclusion, sought to enable a robot to autonomously conduct experiments in the surrounding world and gain new insights, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively.