In this last critical single pixel eye experiment,
      we will demonstrate a key survival behavior of an organism such
      as a primitive early sea worm which had but one eye spot on the
      front of its feeding end. Remember that in the biological world,
      photo sensitive spots can be thought of as neurons that have
      migrated to the surface of the head and have an enhanced photo
      sensitive functionality. Two reasons were key to understanding
      this early behavior, first demonstrated in the earliest multicellular
      organisms nearly a billion years ago. First, the day night feeding
      cycle was easier to detect. In the day, some organisms would
      hide from predators and the relentless UV radiation from the
      raw sun. Second, it was an escape mechanism, such that when the
      organism either buried itself in the mud or found a dark alcove
      it could escape from predators. The detection of light enabled
      such behaviors to take place, and have equal benefits for robots
      as well.

      
Programming

      
The VLR was programmed
      with a simple three state Finite State Machine. The three states
      - Random wander, Cave Verify, and Hide states enables the robot
      to react instantly to its environment, and find a dark alcove
      to take residence in. This advances the visual behavioral intelligence
      to the next level, that of a simple multicellular primitive worm.
      Here is a description of the program defining its Artificial
      Intelligence in detail.

      

        

          

            
 
CLICK to enlarge
          
          

            
 The Finite
            State Machine

            
START - In the
            biological realm, this would be the birth of the organism. Here,
            we represent this with the turning on of the power switch to
            the robot.

            
READ AMBIENT AND
            SAVE - Billions of years of evolution will set this threshold
            level for what can be called bright and dark for an organism.
            But here, since the robot does not have millennia to evolve,
            we have the robot take a brightness reading upon power up. This
            we set as the daytime or full brightness level. Anytime the robot
            sees a drop from this value, is a potential cave.

            
RANDOM WANDER STATE
            - the organism
            will during the daytime exhibit a feeding pattern, be it random,
            S shaped or spirals. This maximizes the ground coverage for maximum
            food intake. Here, the robot implements a random wander mode,
            with full bumper impact avoidance, just like any other living
            creature would do.
          
        
      

      
CAVE VERIFY STATE - If the brightness drops
      based on the pre programmed neurons in the worms brain to below
      what it calls bright, then it must be getting dark and may be
      the entrance to a possible cave or the sediment is starting to
      bury the worm for cover. In the robot, if the brightness drops
      to less than 10 percent of full, then we may have a cave we have
      entered.

      
To verify , the
      robot drives forward until its bumper hits a wall. Then IF its
      still dark then the cave is verified.

      
HIDE STATE - Once the worm or robot
      verifies that it is indeed in a dark alcove or buried. it halts.
      and hides. This extreme survival measure is both life saving
      in the case of the worm, and for the robot it now knows its out
      of the way and parked in a safe place. Rip the cover off either
      organism and expose it to the light and it will go back into
      wander mode and search for a new hiding place.

      
MOVIES

      
Two short low res
      MPG movies are now provided here. The first, The robot is turned
      on, wanders against the side of the arena bounces off and then
      finds the cave (an inverted box). Since the robot is talking
      turn up your volume to hear what it is saying. The second movie
      clip shows the same cave hiding behavior but the camera is riding
      ON THE ROBOT. Just for fun...

      
(Voice Transcript:
      "Now Booting Up", "I am the Vision Logic Robot".
      "Found Possible Cave", "I am in the Cave Now".....)

      
Movie 1

      
Movie 2

      
Practical application

      
I don't know about
      you, but stepping on a robot in the dark at night can be a crippling
      experience for both you and the robot. By parking the robot in
      a save place such as a charging hut or under the coffee table
      is certainly safer than the robot weathering the night out in
      the open. A robot that is charged by solar cells can also benefit
      from this type of program. By reversing the thresholds in the
      cave verify state, we can have the robot look for a bright spot
      in the sun in the daytime for charging.

      
Conclusions of
      one pixel eye experiments.

      
In this last series
      of experiments and demonstrations, we have proven that it is
      certainly feasible to show the visual AI behavior of a simple
      organism such as a protozoan, worm or single celled animal. From
      these humble beginnings, we hope to move on to more advanced
      vision experiments, starting next with two eyes photocell like
      non imaging configuration. Stay tuned!


HOME