A group of scientists at Johns Hopkins have proposed a new study to understand the similarities—if any exist—between brain cells and robots in an autonomous swarm.

“This is a very exciting new project from the perspective of a theorist and computational neuroscientist,” said Kechen Zhang, associate professor at the School of Medicine and the study’s principal investigator. “We propose that individual robots in a group can be thought of as neurons in an animal’s brain. They interact with one another to form dynamic patterns that collectively signal locations in space and time, much in the same way brain rhythms do.”

The scientists, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Applied Physics Laboratory, will combine research into navigational planning in brains with autonomous robotic swarms to drive advances in both fields. The study will use new information and discoveries about how the brain allows an animal to navigate and change its routes while moving—called dynamic replanning—to improve swarming algorithms to the point that groups of robots will automatically adapt to changes in the environment in the same way that a rat knows which detour to take around an unexpected obstacle.

…continue reading ‘What Do Animal Brains Have In Common With a Swarm of Robots?’

Image: via Flickr  Some rights reserved by theglobalpanorama

Be the first to like.

Like

Unlike