Can Robots Learn to Learn?

SCIENCE -- June 24, 2011 at 11:13 AM EDT

Can Robots Learn to Learn?

When it comes to robots, are two heads better than one? A team of scientists at the University of Delaware thinks so.

They believe that robots can be taught to adapt to changing circumstances by observing and communicating with their other robot brethren. And the researchers are modeling their programming code on the learning patterns of human infants.

One of the goals is "to design cooperative robots that can operate autonomously and communicate with each other when deployed at a fire or disaster site," Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports for the National Science Foundation's* latest Science Nation piece.

*For the record, the National Science Foundation is an underwriter of the NewsHour.

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