Cog The Humanoid Robot

464 Words2 Pages
Cog is basically a robot that tries to imitate the sensory and motor dynamics of a human body, otherwise known as a humanoid robot. This robot is being created by the artificial intelligence libratory at MIT. Cog does not have legs, and therefore can not walk; he is built from the waist up. His major points of movement are in the trunk, head, and arms. Cog is equipped with many different sensory items such as sight, hearing, touch, and a vestibular system; a voice is also currently being worked on. The philosophy adopted by this research group is that the form of our bodies is an essential ingredient for the development of internal thought and language. Also, the only way to get robots to have human-like intelligence is to get them to interact with humans. So it would be logical to give this robot a human-like form so that it is easy to interact with. Cog does not have one single microprocessor controlling its brain. He is basically controlled by a number of different microprocessors all networked together. Each one of Cog’s individual joints is controlled by its own microcontroller. Each one of these microcontrollers do things like process inputs from strain gauges, drive the motor responses, and perform calculations. The core network that controls Cog consists of 4 200 MHz PC’s connected by an Ethernet. The amount of computers on the network can easily be upgraded by just plugging new ones in. To mimic the human retina, Cog’s creators gave him two eyes, each equipped with two cameras within them. One camera within the eye provides a wide view for peripheral vision, and the other camera provides a narrow view at high resolution to view the center of the visual field. For Cog’s hearing, he is fitted with a pair of microphones similar to those used for hearing aids. The purpose of the hearing system is to provide real world, robust hearing similar
Open Document