US Navy Funds 'MacGyver' Robot 70
another random user writes "A US team aims to build a robot that can work out how to use nearby objects to solve problems or escape threats. The machine has been dubbed a 'MacGyver Bot,' after the TV character who cobbled together devices to escape life-threatening situations. The challenge is to develop software that 'understands' what objects are in order to deduce how they can be used. The US Navy is funding the project and says the machines might ultimately be deployed alongside humans. It is providing $900,000 to robotics researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to carry out the work."
perfect. (Score:4, Insightful)
a pie-in-the-sky but science fiction-sounding objective, vague enough to mean almost anything but providing many opportunities for defining convenient "subgoals" and spinoff projects along the way, and pitched to the military.
yup! this grant and its extensions may well keep a lab swimming in $$$ until the Singularity.
Re:Rip off arm from nearby human (Score:4, Insightful)
In the beginning a robot and it's creator are the best of friends. I mean literally nestling you in sweet embrace [gatech.edu].
The second that you think it will make a good dance partner and decide to hold onto it's jagged pincers, it will go berserk, breaking cinder brick walls and threatening to throw [gatech.edu] you from a five story building.