Communications of the ACM
Robot Learns to Recognise Itself in the Mirror
Yale University researchers have developed Nico, a humanoid robot that can recognize its reflection in a mirror and identify its arms' location and orientation down to an accuracy of 2 centimeters in any dimension.
Nico is part of an experiment to see whether a robot can pass the test of self-awareness known as the mirror test. Only dolphins, orcas, elephants, magpies, humans, and a few other primates have passed the test to date. The researchers plan to teach Nico how to recognize where its torso and head are, what shape they are, and their color and texture so it can see and react to the mark on its body.
"What excites me is that the robot has learned a model of itself, and is using it to interpret information from the mirror," says Yale researcher Justin Hart.
Robotic self-awareness is essential to robots working safely alongside human beings, according to Mary-Anne Williams at Sydney's University of Technology. "Many robots today not only do not recognize themselves in a mirror, but do not recognize their own body parts directly," she notes.
From New Scientist
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