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archive >    4. 1996 >   Robots gaining independence  In
Professor Vladimir J. Lumelsky's UW-Madison Robotics Laboratory,
robots are starting to "think" for themselves.  Robot and People
Professor Vladimir J. Lumelsky (front) works with his graduate
students to give robots more human-like senses. (large image)
Their "learning" is the result of Lumelsky's pioneering efforts
in the new field of sensor-based motion planning. This process
equips robots with a plastic "skin" covered with hundreds of
infrared lights and sensors that help the machines sense their
surroundings and plot their movements accordingly . . . without
human direction.  Potential applications of sensor-based motion
are varied, ranging from underwater robots that could guide
themselves over fault lines and obstacles, sending back key
information about ocean floors, to space-traveling robots that
could hover around the o