This robot learns things likea child
New York: Heard of a robot that can learn things on its own, through trial and error? Well, here is one.
Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley have developed algorithms that enable robots to learn motor tasks through trial and error — much like humans learn things.
They demonstrated their technique, a type of reinforcement learning, by having a robot complete various tasks — putting a clothes hanger on a rack, assembling a toy plane, screwing a cap on a water bottle, and more — without pre-programmed details about its surroundings.
“What we’re reporting on here is a new approach to empowering a robot to learn,” said Pieter Abbeel.
“The challenge of putting robots into real-life settings, like homes or offices, is that those environments are constantly changing. The robot must be able to perceive and adapt to its surroundings,” added co-researcher Trevor Darrell.
The researchers turned to a new branch of artificial intelligence known as deep learning.
In the world of artificial intelligence, deep learning programmes create “neural nets” in which layers of artificial neurons process overlapping raw sensory data, whether it be sound waves or image pixels.
This helps the robot recognise patterns and categories among the data it is receiving.
In the experiment, the researchers worked with a Willow Garage Personal Robot 2 (PR2) which they nicknamed BRETT. They presented BRETT with a series of motor tasks, such as placing blocks into matching openings or stacking Lego blocks.
When given the relevant coordinates for the beginning and end of the task, the PR2 could master a typical assignment in about 10 minutes.
When the robot is not given the location for the objects in the scene and needs to learn vision and control together, the learning process takes about three hours.
The findings are scheduled to be presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Seattle on May 28. (IANS)
Painting exhibition on Buddha held in Singapore
Singapore: Thousands of tourists and Singaporeans have attended the first ever week-long contemporary art exhibition on Gautama Buddha ahead of the Vesak Day on June 1.
Twenty-five paintings of Gautama Buddha were showcased at the week-long exhibition titled “The Enlightened One”, at the Ion Orchard, one of the main shopping malls in the city-state’s fashionable Orchard Road. “It was a challenge to organise this first ever Gautama Buddha exhibition based on work of 25 contemporary artists,” art curator Vidhya Gnana Gouresan said.
“Indian art has an amazing quality of ancient but still it is contemporary,” said Gouresan, 35, who has been holding art shows for 15 years in Singapore, India, Thailand and Malaysia. The exhibition, held May 18-24, was a celebration of Gautama Buddha and the Vesak Day but it was early because of time slot at the gallery in the centre of main thoroughfare, she said. Vesak Day is celebrated on June 1st which is a national holiday in Singapore.
At Vesak, Buddhists commemorate the birth of the Buddha-to-be, Siddhattha Gautama, his enlightenment at the age of 35 when he became the Buddha and his final ‘passing’ into Nirvana at the age of 80, no more to be reborn. Buddhist scriptures relate that each of these three significant events occurred on a full moon of the Indian lunar month of Vesakha. (PTI)
Prince Andrew wears new 12000 pound Apple Watch
London: Britain’s Prince Andrew has become one the first people in the UK to get his hands on a limited edition 18-carat Apple Watch worth 12,000 pounds.
The 55-year-old Duke of York tweeted a picture of himself wearing the watch at a meeting of the Commonwealth veterans’ group. Andrew is believed to have received the expensive gadget as a gift, the Independent reported. He received more than 100 gifts last year during official engagements, including a model surface-to-air missile. “A list of gifts received will be released in the usual way in early 2016,” Andrew’s spokesman was quoted as saying by the newspaper. The Apple Watch, which went on sale last month, has many iPhone features including the one used to send text messages. (PTI)
Tibetan town captures first photos of their ‘panda deity’
Beijing: Authorities in a remote Tibetan town in southwest China known for panda worship have said that hidden cameras have recorded the presence of the cuddly animal in the area for the first time.
Photographs and video footage, taken on May 17 and 20, show an adult panda in a bamboo forest, according to the forestry office in Caodi Township in the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, Sichuan Province.
The pictures and videos are the first captured in the Tibetan town, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
According to local legend, once a panda god appeared and taught local Tibetans to use a herb to cure a deadly plague.
Later on, people don panda masks, and mimic chewing bamboo and climbing trees in a millennium-old dance to scare away evil spirits and pray for blessings. The dance was included on China’s intangible cultural heritage list in 2014. It was confirmed in 2013 that at least seven wild pandas still live in the town after panda feces were found. This led to the installation of the infrared cameras.
Giant pandas are one of the world’s most endangered species. About 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, while more than 300 live in captivity.
Caodi is located near the scenic Jiuzhaigou Valley, a World Heritage site, and has a natural reserve for endangered species including pandas and snub-nosed monkeys. (PTI)
Resentful Japanese man flushes wife’s remains down toilet
Tokyo: A Japanese man turned himself in to authorities after trying to flush the ashes of his “hated” dead wife down a supermarket toilet, reports and police said today.
The 68-year-old man told police he dumped his wife’s ashes into the toilet bowl at a Tokyo supermarket immediately after she was cremated last month. Police were alerted after the ashes, and bone fragments including a human chin, were discovered, but were at a loss to explain them until the man handed himself in, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. He had felt growing resentment towards his spouse over the years of their unhappy marriage, according to the daily.
“I had hatred mounting against her,” the man, whose name was not disclosed, was quoted as saying. “Life was such a pain before she died.” His wife had died at the age of 64, following an illness. Prosecutors are now considering whether to lay charges of abandoning a human body, as ashes can only be scattered in approved locations, a Tokyo police spokesman told AFP. (AFP)
207 giant turtles to be released in the Galapagos
Quito (Equador): Administrators at Ecuador’s Galapagos National Park said 207 giant turtles will be released next month on the island of Santa Fe, where the native tortoises died out more than 150 years ago.
The turtles to be set loose on June 5 by the park directors and the Galapagos Conservancy group belong to the species Chelonoidis hoodensis, Spanish news agency Efe reported from the South American nation.
Native to the Galapagos island of Espanola, the Chelonoidis is morphologically and genetically similar to the original Santa Fe turtle. The aim of the initiative is to establish “a breeding population that fulfills a function in the ecosystem”, park management said. “Once the turtles are introduced, a key part of this project is to assess changes in the ecosystem resulting from the presence of these chelonians, and to evaluate the interaction between the turtles and the island’s land iguanas, particularly in the use of shared resources like food,” Danny Rueda, Galapagos ecosystems director, said. The turtles to be released on Santa Fe range in age from four to 10 and have been raised in captivity. Around 40 of the turtles will be equipped with a GPS device that will relay data on their movements and activities. (IANS)
