IT TAKES humans a year or so to learn to stand and walk on two legs, but a Swedish robot called Elvis might do it in a matter of weeks.
If Elvis, a 40-centimetre-tall humanoid, manages to stand at all, it will be a remarkable feat. Designing robots that can balance well has proved to be extremely difficult. So rather than trying to do it themselves, Elvis's creators plan to let "evolutionary" software do all the hard work.
The researchers, at Gothenborg University in Sweden, plan to use algorithms that mimic genetic mutation to "breed" the robot's control systems by natural selection. They hope this will let Elvis not only stand but also walk, navigate and perceive the worldall without anyone knowing exactly how it does it.
According to Peter Nordin, the project coordinator, tough problems such as balance are often skirted around in robot building because they are so ...