Like any proud parent, Michigan State University computer scientist Juyang Weng has a lot to say about what sets his little ones apart from their peers. Traditional robots, he explains, must be specially programmed for new tasks. And you just can't teach them much. Sure, they can acquire data-but only within narrowly defined parameters set ahead of time by their programmers. "But human learning is not like that," Weng says. "Human learning is real-time, online, on the fly." And that kind of learning, Weng says, is essential if you want a machine to be able to cope with the unexpected-unpredictable terrain, new people or objects, noisy settings-which will surely confront robotic household assistants and military machines alike.

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