10 May 2005
Funding has been awarded an innovative new project that is aiming to design robots that will be used to construct devices to aid people with disabilities.
According to the BBC, £2 million has been given to the Reverse Engineering the Invertebrate Brain (REVERB) project being led by Dr Kevin Gurney from the University of Sheffield.
Dr Gurney explained: "We anticipate the robots will be able to process sensory information from their surroundings in the same way that the human nervous system does, and based on that information, decide how to act.
"The new breed of robots will be able to notice any sudden change in their surroundings, such as something appearing in the periphery of its vision, and will make an almost instantaneous decision as to whether the change warrants any action."
The project will be making use of the latest chip technology to create the robots and is being run in collaboration with BAE Systems.
"Robots that can interpret and respond to their surroundings could, in the future, be used to construct devices to aid people with disabilities, or to help in hostile environments such as deep oceans or space," the team leader added.© DeHavilland Information Services plc
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