"This four-legged robot is not preprogrammed to walk. Like a newborn animal it explores itself and learns to use its limbs to move. When a leg is damaged, it repeats the process and works out a new method of locomotion."
So instead of having instantly mature and adept bots doing the same meninal tasks, we have, in essence, a bot with a blank mind that learns how to walk again after being injured. Does this mean the metal can regenerate itself?
"Graduate student Viktor Zykov, former student Josh Bongard, now a professor at the University of Vermont, and Hod Lipson, Cornell assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, watch as a starfish-like robot pulls itself forward, using a gait it developed for itself. the robot's ability to figure out how it is put together, and from that to learn to walk, enables it to adapt and find a new gait when it is damaged." (Cornell)
Not as awesome, but I'll take it.If only this technology could be applied to sentry guns...
Source: Cornell University
