Robotarium X: First Zoo for Artificial Life
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 06.29.07
Now here's something you've probably never seen before: a zoo for animal life. Animal life powered by electric and solar energy, that is. The Robotarium X in Alverca, Portugal, contains 45 robots that encompass a range of several distinct species (14) characterized by their unique morphologies and behavior strategies. The robots, built specifically for the zoo, possess certain abilities, including obstacle avoidance, movement or sunlight detection and interaction with the public.
So why, you ask, would anyone go to the trouble of creating a zoo for artificial life when there are already plenty of zoos with real animal life? Leonel Moura, the project's originator, explains his rationale thusly:
"Robotarium X, the first zoo for artificial life, approaches robots very much in the way as we are used to look at natural life. We, humans, enjoy watching and studying other life forms behavior and, sadly, also to capture them. However, in this case, although the robots are confined to a cage it can be said that, not like animals, they enjoy it. In fact the Robotarium is their ideal environment with plenty of sun, smoothness, tranquility and attention. There are no fights or aggression and the only competition is to assure a place under the sunlight.
Plenty more pics of Robotarium X and its coterie of mechanical creatures after the jump.
Via: ::Robotarium X (website), ::Seed's Daily Zeitgeist (magazine)
See also: ::Old Zoo, New Tricks, ::Clivus Multrum at the Bronx Zoo, ::Tel Aviv University Zoo: City Safari On Foot, ::"National Zoo Selects Soy-thanks to Treehugger.com!"
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Hmm...good step, bad step? Good...in that it reinforces the human acceptance of artificial life as something "living" rather than "operating". Bad...humans have showed historically to misuse and abuse varying animal species, both directly and indirectly. Should artificial intelligence accelerate rapidly over the coming years, the human treatment of these "creatures" will have to be better than our treatment of organic species. And that will be difficult if they consistently considered "machines with animal intelligence".
But all in all, this zoo is great idea for the time being and it makes me happy that someone somewhere had the idea for such a production. Good luck and take care of those babies.