Smart movers

The car maker DaimlerChrysler has introduced industrial robots with brains that evolve. A programmer normally has to devote several days of meticulous high-precision training to smoothing out a robot’s movements on the factory floor. But now the firm’s robots can train themselves, using an advanced genetic algorithm. This lets a robot evolve the most efficient sequence of movements to do the job with the least effort and wear and tear on its joints.