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MINSK, 5 May (BelTA) – Belarusian scientists have come up with new ways of robot locomotion, BelTA learned from Grigory Prokopovich, Head of the Robot Technology Systems Lab of the United Informatics Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB), before the roundtable session on robot technology for young scientists on 5 May.

The scientist said: “Robot locomotion is a major problem at the moment. The walking robots we see in the movies do exist but they cost $300,000-500,000 apiece. This is why we need other locomotion methods, quality and cheap ones. Spherical robots, which important parts are placed inside the body, are an option. We have come up with a new way for such robots to move themselves. We’ve already acquired the Russian patent for this R&D product. Now we are getting the Belarusian one.”

Apart from that, the scientists have created an educational robot construction kit RoboCake. It has been patented already. Five kits have been sold to the Belarusian State University. They will be used by the university’s Applied Math and Informatics Department. “After learning how to control our robots, the guys will be able to start working at a real enterprise right away. Educational robots are vital for training the specialists,” noted the scientist.

The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus is also busy developing software for robots. Robot grouping technology also deserves attention. “Let’s talk about vacuum cleaner robots, for instance. If you buy several of them to clean large areas, it does not mean that cleaning quality will be several times better if they are left to their own devices. New software, new ways of interaction and control algorithms are needed. We used to think about swarm robots from the point of view of fundamental science. Now we are switching to practice. We have already achieved interesting results,” added Grigory Prokopovich.

The scientists are also busy developing new ways of data processing. “Together with our neurophysiologists we study how people think. The human brain is no algorithm. It uses a totally different structure. We are trying to model it,” said the scientist.

The roundtable session on principles of building robots and practical applications gathered young scientists in the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus on 5 May. The event was meant to bolster interdisciplinary cooperation between academy scientists and university scientists as well as cooperation with representatives of the private sector. Representatives of various organizations of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the Military Academy, the Belarusian company AGAT – Control Systems, the Belarusian National Technical University, the Belarusian State University, the private sector, and Belarusian manufacturing enterprises also took part in the event.