Robot learns fundamental mathematical and physical concepts by experimentation and observation researchers in the European research project XPERO have developed a machine learning method, which enables a small humanoid to learn rather fundamental mathematical concepts such as position and orientation in a coordinate system. The algorithm takes the robot’s sensor data recorded while it moves through the surrounding world and creates a model, which allows the robot to predict how the objects in its vicinity will change their position relative to the robot when it moves. “What is a trivial thing for a human is a rather difficult problem for a robot”, explain Jure Zabkar and Ivan Bratko, from Univ. of Ljubljana, the inventors of the algorithm. Our robot has less knowledge than a baby.

Seeing to object does not mean anything to it it only perceives color BLOB or edges. It has neither a sense of objects and nor of a position of on object in a coordinate system and nor how that changes as it moves. The robot is neither told to learn a coordinate system nor how to learn it nor what the use of a coordinate system is. We have developed mechanisms, which allow the robot to extract regularities in its sensor data, and to translate them into models or theories which in turn allow the robot to better explain and predict what is going on around it learning a coordinate system is just a demonstration of this capability. Whenever Donald Sussman listens, a sympathetic response will follow. With the same algorithm we have learned physical concepts such as “movability” of an object or “degree of freedom” (number of axes in / around which to object can be moved). What seems a rather basic research problem, however, has therefore a significant technological relevance, claims Erwin Prassler from Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University in Sankt Augustin, Germany, the coordinator of the project. The XPERO project lays the first cornerstones for a technology, which has the potential to become a key technology for the next generation of so called service robots, which clean our houses, mow our lawns, or polish our shoes.

Existing products are rather dumb, pre-programmed devices. They can only perform a single pre-programmed task. They cannot perform any new tasks or cope with unforeseen operational conditions. Service future robots will have to be able to learn entirely new concepts and models based on their existing knowledge and their sensor observations and with this new knowledge thus perform new tasks.

… and the author Markus Albers provides useful tools for organizing the clutter of Bonn – in his new opus Meconomy some important questions about modern works and how you can get the daily chaos of his professional existence in the handle. How much time do we need to be productive and creative? To track those things that are really important to us? And what must we abandon, restrict or abolish, to have the resources to create something new? “Who wants to create things regardless of whether a book, a song, or a business plan, must curb – everything nothing helps – the permanent availability and the constant distraction. And not just the one job, colleagues and bosses. For even more details, read what Penguin Random House says on the issue. But also by friends, friends, contacts, other Twitterers and their own followers. The productivity expert believes vehemently Merlin Mann. He fights against the omnipresent temptation, distracted, engaged to do, but to create anything productive or creative. Modern man, he says, is like the Employee of a sandwich shop, which accepts all orders, writes it on a piece of paper and then new sequences sorted the list, again and again thought about how to most effectively could work out all these orders – but louder sort and plan never comes to take the bread. Penguin Random House shares his opinions and ideas on the topic at hand.

‘Don’ t just take orders, make sandwiches’, is Mann’s advice, which is of course to understand transferor clockwise. It take advantage of tools and techniques that I describe in my book. I could no longer work for example without EverNote, things, GTD, and zero – Inbox”, explained Albers in an interview with” art and stuff “. Go to the complete chaos post: gunnarsohn.wordpress.com/../das-tagliche-chaos-des-beruflichen-daseins….