A new open source computer simulation system that lets robots practice tasks in simulated reality 430,000 times faster than in the real world. Researchers can also use an AI agent to generate 3D physics simulations from text prompts.
The accelerated simulation means a neural network for piloting robots can spend the virtual equivalent of decades learning to pick up objects, walk, or manipulate tools during just hours of real computer time.
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Two paralysed patients have been able to walk short distances and even climb stairs once more after being implanted with electrodes in their brains. Both had catastrophic spinal injuries that meant they relied on a wheelchair before the operation.
Surgeons used deep brain stimulation to re-awaken dormant nerve fibres in the spinal cord and re-establish control of the leg muscles. The breakthrough came after neuroscientists at the EPFL used AI to map all the neurons in the brain involved in helping rats and mice walk.
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RAVEN (Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironments) drone, with its bird-inspired legs, can do jumping takeoffs just like crows do, and can use those same legs to get around on the ground pretty well. The drone’s bird-inspired legs adopted some key principles of biological design like the ability to store and release energy in tendon-like springs along with some flexible toes. Multifunctional legs bring RAVEN much closer to birds, and although these mechanical legs are not nearly as complex and capable as actual bird legs, adopting some key principles of biological design allows RAVEN to get around in a very bird-like way.
RAVEN is approximately the size of a crow, with a wingspan of 100 centimeters and a body length of 50 cm. It can walk a meter in just under four seconds, hop over 12 cm gaps, and jump into the top of a 26 cm obstacle. For the jumping takeoff, RAVEN’s legs propel the drone to a starting altitude of nearly half a meter, with a forward velocity of 2.2 m/s. RAVEN’s a 620-gram drone of which a full 230 grams consists of feet and toes and actuators and whatnot. A vision system that could be used for both obstacle avoidance and landing is in the works, as are wings that can fold to allow the drone to pass through narrow gaps.
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