By Katie Scott, Wired UK

A robot that uses its own reasoning when faced with a task it hasn't completed before has been unveiled by the Hasegawa Group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

The robot uses a technology called SOINN (Self-Organising Incremental Neural Network). Osamu Hasegawa is Associate Professor at the lab and one of the system's designers. He says in a press release: "So far, robots, including industrial robots, have been able to do specific tasks quickly and accurately. But if their environment changes slightly, robots like that can't respond."This new robot can. When it is faced with the unknown, the SOINN robot uses its past experiences to make an educated guess as to what to do. It does this by "self-organising the input data it is supplied with."

If it comes to a blank, it asks for help and can be taught how to do a new task, which it will then remember. Hasegawa adds that the system is also web-enabled and so this robot will be able to communicate with other robots to get help on how to complete a task.

The robot was filmed learning to pour a glass of water (or in this case, seeds, as water near electronics is not a good idea) but the commentator on DigInfo TV adds that the robot was next asked to produce a glass of cold water and decided itself to put down the glass and tumbler before trying to pick up the ice.

When it learns to make the perfect gin and tonic, I want one.

Video: Diginfonews/YouTube

Source: Wired.co.uk

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