Stanford's "Autonomous" Helicopters Learn 90
An anonymous reader writes "Stanford computer scientists have developed an artificial intelligence system that enables robotic helicopters to teach themselves to fly difficult stunts by 'watching' other helicopters perform the same maneuvers. The result is an autonomous helicopter that can perform a complete airshow of complex tricks on its own. The stunts are 'by far the most difficult aerobatic maneuvers flown by any computer controlled helicopter,' said Andrew Ng, the professor directing the research of graduate students Pieter Abbeel, Adam Coates, Timothy Hunter and Morgan Quigley. The dazzling airshow is an important demonstration of 'apprenticeship learning,' in which robots learn by observing an expert, rather than by having software engineers peck away at their keyboards in an attempt to write instructions from scratch.'" The title of the linked article uses the term "autonomous," but that's somewhat misleading. The copters can't fly on their own, but rather can duplicate complex maneuvers learned from a human pilot.
That's exactly how Terminator got started (Score:5, Funny)
Remember those robot gunships in the Terminator movies? Yes, the they shot lasers and what not. Those things had humble beginnings.
I for one... (Score:1, Funny)
Oh forget it.
Re:That's exactly how Terminator got started (Score:2, Funny)
So Mr. Ng makes semi-autonomous mini-helicopters? (Score:1, Funny)
I, for one, welcome our new supersonic nuclear cyborg pit-bull terrier guard dogs.
Re:Duh, it doesn't mean automatic (Score:2, Funny)
Who on slashdot wouldn't be familiar with the word autonomous?
Not everyone on Slashdot posts as an Autonomous Coward.
Re:Autonomous (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, they need to be able to learn an abstract concept and apply it to the conditions around them rather than learning a fixed sequence of actions and repeating blindly. In slashdot terms rather than posting "I for one welcome our robot overlords" to every article and get modded "-1 Die in Fire", they learn to make a slightly original joke tailored to the article and get modded up.
Oh God, what have I become.
Have these guys not seen the Terminator movies? (Score:1, Funny)
Why don't they just start working on the Robotrons now? Maybe then they could get them finished before 2084 and just get the whole "destruction of man by his own creation" thing over with.
Nice line break... (Score:3, Funny)
I read this on the main page. It was laid out with
"Stanford computer scientists have developed an artificial intelligence system that enables robotic helicopters to teach themselves to
and then a new line, which I was certain was going to start with the word "kill".