Virtual beings develop bodies that help them learn
The virtual creature swung its four arms like tentacles, propelling itself forward. It crept up the hill then rushed to the other side. It looks like “octopuses walk on land,” says Agrim Gupta. This strange creature developed a body of its own. It also learned its own method of moving. This mix of evolution and learning could help engineers build new types of robots, Gupta said. A PhD student studying computer vision at Stanford University in California, Gupta is like a grandfather to this octopus-like creature and hundreds of other odd-looking virtual creatures. He created the ancestors that gave rise to these creatures. He called them unimals, meaning “universal beasts.” The term reflects the fact that they can evolve into so many different body forms. Some resemble real animals. Others are quite strange. The team found that the animal’s body type affects its ability to learn new things. We tend to think of learning as something that happens in the brain. But, Gupta note