A reader sent along this link, complete with a video that is simultaneously cool and rather creepy. The page/video showcase a "self-modeling" robot, created by a student at the University of Vermont. What makes it self-modeling is the fact that it essentially teaches itself to walk--if you can really use that term in this case. The page plays it a big safer, opting for the more generic, "performing tasks like locomotion."

The best way that I can think to describe the thing is as something akin to a robotic starfish teaching itself to move in a manner not too unlike that of a newly born baby calf. And, in case that image wasn't upsetting enough, the researchers damages robo-starfish-baby-calf's right arm, and watch as it struggles to overcome adversity like a particularly tenacious wounded animal. The footage is interspersed with images of brightly colored geometrical shapes performing the same tasks.

Worth checking out for people who like robots or just enjoy watching things stagger around like they've had a few too many.

[Thanks Daanish]