Originated by Mark W. Tilden of Sandia National Laboratories in Los Alamos,
New Mexico, BEAM robotics stands for "Biology Electronics Aesthetics
Mechanics." BEAM robotics has spawned a movement of grassroots roboticists who compete
in international competitions to see whose creation can best weather obstacle
courses [1].
The
BEAM philosophy is based on the idea that large, heuristically driven Artificial
Intelligences can't evolve very quickly. BEAM solves the problem by encouraging
enterprising inventors to 'cannibalize' electronic junk: pocket calculators,
old diodes and batteries.
This distinctly lo-fi approach to robotics relies
on simple neural networks, control circuitry that can lead to emergent
behavior. Because they are cheap, the sheer volume of competition teases
out the best designs in what amounts to a Natural Selection of sorts [2].
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