As infants, we had to learn how to use our limbs in order to crawl and then to walk. Always taking cues from nature, roboticists such as Hod Lipson have tapped into an important, but underestimated aspect of our own movement: our body awareness, or proprioception. Researchers have built a robot that has this “sixth sense,” demonstrated here in this jaw-dropping demonstration of machine learning and adaptation. Lipson asserts that in order for robots to think, behave, and perform tasks like us, we have to step back and let the machines learn on their own.

Image courtesy of Cornell University; Recorded June 2011; Posted August 2011