Robolife

April 27, 2007

No doubt about it: whatever the speed of change that gets us there – and we may well believe it will be slower than Kurzweilian singularity-speak suggests – the significance of artificial intelligence will grow and grow. And meanwhile, the social conversation that will shape how and – in some areas – whether it grows has hardly begun to happen. From the story:

Once people have followed a recipe and become acquainted with robots,
they can build on their experience, said Emily Hamner, a senior
research associate in the CREATE Lab. Not only can they customize the
recipes to their liking, they can also design new robot types using
the Qwerk controller.

Qwerk itself is a full-fledged computer with a Linux operating system
that can use any computer language. It features a field programmable
gate array (FPGA) to control motors, servos, cameras, amplifiers and
other devices. It also accepts USB peripheral devices, such as Web
cameras and GPS receivers. We leveraged several low-cost, yet high-
performance components that were originally developed for the consumer
electronics industry when we designed Qwerk, said Rich LeGrand,
president of Charmed Labs. “The result is a cost-effective robot
controller with impressive capabilities.