I was reading the science section of the New York Times the other day, (yesterday, to be precise) and I came upon a fascinating article. We have all heard, I'm sure, of monkeys or apes that can use sign language or do some other amazing thing. This however, was more interesting than anything I have heard in the monkey-related science world for awhile.
Idoya, the monkey at hand, was trained to walk upright on a treadmill. She practiced three times a week, walking forwards and backwards for 15 minute blocks of time. This 12 pound, 32 inch monkey was walking in North Carolina, but for the cool part, we need to travel halfway across the world to Japan! There we meet CB, a 200 pound "computational brain" robot. By using brain impulses and electrons that monitered the firing of neurons, Idoya was able to make CB walk, even though their treadmills, a half a world away, were not connected in any way! To acomplish this feat, electrodes were implanted into Idoya's brain and her legs were painted with fluorescent paint so they could better map her movements using a high speed camera. They extensively mapped the firing of about 300 electrons and her various leg motions so they could eventually predict exactly what would happen around four seconds before it did. During the actual experiment, they rigged up a moniter so Idoya could watch CB walking. Signals from the electrodes were transmitted to the recievers on CB's legs, and he walked at the same regular pace CB did. Even when the researchers stopped the treadmill, Idoya was able to keep CB walking for around 3 minutes simply using her brain. Apparently this is due to the powerful uses of visual aids. Idoya was very focused on watching CB's legs, and so, after awhile, though some neurons were still making her legs move, others began treating the robot's legs like her own. "The latter set of neurons had basically become attuned to the robot's legs after about an hour of practice and visual feedback.", explains Sandra Blakeslee, a writer for the New York Times. Thus, when she stopped walking, she was still able to make the robot walk.
Although a giant leap forward, the concept isn't new. Monkeys have been able to control other, single, robot parts, such as a robotic arm. However, this is the first instance of such a major breakthrough, and Dr. Nicolelis and Dr. Teixeira hope to have humans controlling such exoskeletons by the end of the year. This may be an ambitious project, but I'm excited to hear the results!
(right) Dr. Nicolelis in N. Carolina
(left) CB and Gordon Cheng in Kyoto, Japan
(all information found at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/science/15robo.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Idoya&oref=slogin)
2 comments:
It continues to amaze me that you have enough time to read and learn this much, not only that but you go ahead and blog on it. This experiment that you have mentioned is extremely influential. What potential uses can we hypothesize? I can see major progress in terms of prosthetic limbs. pretty darn cool.
Thanks! Well, as for the potential uses, I think it would be really cool if we could use this technology in humans so that people who need artifical limbs, like war veterns, could have a fake arm that moves naturally and is nearly impossible to tell from the real thing. It could also result in more agile robots who could preform dangerous tasks skillfully because the person who normally would do them is miming it and sending signals to the robot.
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