[ExI] How Giving Robots a Hybrid, Human-Like ‘Brain’ Can Make Them Smarter

[John Grigg]

"As robots get more complex and capable, those demands are only going to
increase. Today’s most powerful AI systems run in massive data centers
across far more chips than can realistically fit inside a machine on the
move. And the slow death of Moore’s Law
<https://singularityhub.com/2020/08/23/moores-law-lives-intel-says-chips-will-pack-50-times-more-transistors/>
suggests we can’t rely on conventional processors getting significantly
more efficient or compact anytime soon.

That prompted a team from the University of Southern California to
resurrect an idea from more than 40 years ago: mimicking the human brain’s
division of labor between two complimentary structures. While the cerebrum
is responsible for higher cognitive functions like vision, hearing, and
thinking, the cerebellum integrates sensory data and governs movement,
balance, and posture.

When the idea was first proposed the technology didn’t exist to make it a
reality, but in a paper recently published in *Science Robotics*, the
researchers describe a hybrid system that combines analog circuits that
control motion and digital circuits that govern perception and
decision-making in an inverted pendulum robot.

“Through this cooperation of the cerebrum and the cerebellum, the robot can
conduct multiple tasks simultaneously with a much shorter latency and lower
power consumption,” write the researchers."

https://singularityhub.com/2020/10/26/how-giving-robots-a-hybrid-human-like-brain-can-make-them-smarter/
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