Robots - Edinburgh University

Picture by Lesley Martin
3 April 2013

Published in the Scottish Sun

Robots will play rock-scissors-paper against human opponents in a series of sell-out shows at this year's Edinburgh International Science Festival.

The humanoid devices - programmed by scientists at the University of Edinburgh - will use artificial intelligence to learn their opponents' strategy as they play. The devices will try to react intelligently in order to win the game.

Amid a series of one-hour workshops at this year's festival, the robots will also practice responding to human gestures. With help from a Microsoft Kinect - a motion-sensing device originally designed for the Xbox 360 - the two-foot-high robots will learn to respond to people's gestures and, ultimately, learn to anticipate their actions.

In addition, the robots hope to hone their soccer skills in anticipation of the 2013 RoboCup, a global football contest for robot teams. The free one-hour workshops are to be held at the National Museum of Scotland at 2pm until Friday.

Dr Ram Ramamoorthy, who is overseeing the robots' participation in the Science Festival, said: "These popular little robots are very entertaining to watch and we hope that the Science Festival crowds will enjoy seeing them in action.

"However, our research has a serious and very useful purpose - we hope to develop machines that are smart enough to work alongside humans, assisting in tasks where people could use a helping hand."

Pictured with the robot is Subramanian Ramamoorthy (lecturer in robotics at Edinburgh University School of Infomatics).

lesleymartin