"Transforming robotics with biologically inspired learning models

The Neuromorphics Lab is researching innovative robot learning-algorithms. Imagine having a cleaning robot that did what no other cleaning robot is currently able to do: learn. It could learn the one place in your house where your dog always loves to wipe his grubby little paws when he comes inside. It could learn that Tuesdays are softball practice, which means a certain trail of dirt leading up to your room...

Researchers in the Neuromorphics Lab are closer than ever to being able to accomplish the goal of creating a general mammalian-type intelligence. Most people have never even heard of the term "neuromorphic"--which is a technology with a specific form ("morphic") that is based on brain ("neuro") architecture. The neural models being developed by the Neuromorphics Lab implement "whole brain systems," or large-scale brain models that allow virtual and robotic agents to learn on their own to interact with new environments.

Like any intelligent biological system, artificial-autonomous and adaptive systems need three things: a mind, a brain and a body. The CELEST models run on a software platform called Cog, which serves as the operating system within which the artificial "brain" is developed...

Since the animat is not explicitly programmed to solve specific tasks, there is greater flexibility for the robot's prospective functions. Eventually, it will function on an autonomous level and be able to take on more complex adaptive tasks such as intelligently interacting and caring for the elderly, autonomously exploring and collecting samples on an alien planet, and generally employing more humanoid behavior (like terminating)...
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-robotics-biologically.html
"