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Cog (project)
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<h2 id="principal-investigators">Principal investigators</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Rodney_Brooks/JcAvm7Wp">Rodney Brooks</a></li> <li>Lynn Andrea Stein</li></ul> <h2 id="purpose">Purpose</h2> <ul><li>To study theories of cognitive science and artificial intelligence (AI).</li></ul> <h2 id="goals">Goals</h2> <ul><li>To design and fabricate a humanoid face for each robot that fosters suitable social contact between robots and humans.</li> <li>To create a robot which is capable of interacting with humans and objects in a human-like way.</li> <li>To develop a relatively general system by which Cog can learn causal relations between commands to its motors and input from its sensors (primarily vision and <a href="/facts/Proprioceptive_sensors_in_humanoid_robots/0l82ABSc">mechanical proprioception</a>).</li> <li>To shift the robot aesthetic to a design language that utilizes strong curvilinear and organic forms through state of the art design processes and materials.</li></ul> <h2 id="research-and-advancements">Research and advancements</h2> <ul><li>Development of a human-like face for Cog (complete).</li> <li>Obtaining major degrees of motor freedom in trunk (complete), head (complete), arms (complete), legs, and a flexible spine.</li> <li>Sight (through video cameras that respond to movement; complete).</li> <li>Hearing, touch, vocalization system, and hands.</li> <li>Allowing Cog to learn how its own movements alter its sensory inputs.</li> <li>Forcing Cog to take energy efficiency into account during movements.</li></ul> <h2 id="justification">Justification</h2> <p>One motivation for making <a href="/facts/Humanoid_robot/0l82ABSc">humanoid robots</a> can be understood in the book <i>Philosophy in the Flesh</i> by <a href="/facts/Mark_Johnson_(professor)/DJF6seKn">Mark Johnson</a> and <a href="/facts/George_Lakoff/gT0I0UNd">George Lakoff</a>. They argue that the contents of human thoughts are to some degree dependent on the physical structure of our <a href="/facts/Brain/Xo5ABfXl">brains</a>. By constructing artificial intelligence systems that have structural features similar to those of humans, we may be more likely to achieve human-like functionality. </p><p>Another motivation for building humanoid robotic systems is that a machine with a human-like form may have more human-like interactions with people. This could be particularly important for an <a href="/facts/Artificial_intelligence/lJGauQwX">artificial intelligence</a> device to learn from people in the way that human children learn through interactions within a social group. </p><p><a href="/facts/Marvin_Minsky/HTU5MYLL">Marvin Minsky</a> criticized the project, that Cog should be built as a software simulation, "because robotics research is really a software problem".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="media-appearances">Media appearances</h2> <p>Cog appeared on ABC's <i>Brave New World</i> in a segment drumming with <a href="/facts/They_Might_Be_Giants/b2EySlSs">They Might Be Giants</a> titled "Dan vs. Cog".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> </p><p>Cog appeared in the <i><a href="/facts/Understanding_(TV_series)/0IckuMz4">Understanding</a></i> television series episode "The Senses". </p><p>Cog appeared in Sherry Turkle's book <a href="/facts/Sherry_Turkle/xGTkD3Nn">Alone Together</a> </p><p>Cog's earliest popular science appearance was the 1994 <i>Bringing Up RoboBaby</i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> published in <a href="/facts/Wired_(magazine)/RQb6gcyf">Wired</a> and authored by David H. Freedman. As confirmed in the original project proposal by Brooks and Stein,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> Freedman reports <a href="/facts/Artificial_Consciousness/JWjqEWFc">AI consciousness</a> was part of the original goal. </p> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://groups.csail.mit.edu/lbr/humanoid-robotics-group/cog/">Official website</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Freedman, David H. "Bringing Up RoboBaby". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 20 Dec 2016. Retrieved 2023-12-26. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161220115256/https://www.wired.com/1994/12/cog/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20161220115256/https://www.wired.com/1994/12/cog/</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"Dan vs. Cog". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2020-12-27. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfiLnEn4qkk" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfiLnEn4qkk</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Freedman, David (1 December 1994). "Bringing Up RoboBaby". Wired. <a href="https://www.wired.com/1994/12/cog/" target="_blank">https://www.wired.com/1994/12/cog/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Brooks, Rodney; Stein, Lynn Andrea (1 August 1993). "Building Brains for Bodies". AI Memos (AIM-1439). MIT AI Lab. hdl:1721.1/5948. <a href="https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/5948" target="_blank">https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/5948</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>