Can robots actually know how feelings are like? I suppose if one could boil down feelings to a series of 1s and 0s, then it would be a phenomenal breakthrough, but until then, abstract ideas such as courage and perseverance would be difficult for a robot to “know”. However, robots can be programmed to have a sense of “perseverance”, which would be to go on until it is not physically possible to do so. Engineers have successfully come up with a robot that will reassess its walking options and continue to the destination despite carrying a broken leg.
This is made possible thanks to an “intelligent trial and error” process, where the half dozen legged robot was able to figure out how it will continue marching on despite having a broken leg, doing so in under 2 minutes, now how about that? This would definitely lead to a generation of more robust, effective, and autonomous robots, which is something the military too, might be interested in.
The whole aim of such research was to have robots mimic the behavior of injured animals, as animals that are injured will still hobble along and not lie on their backs, waiting for death to clam them.
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