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To understand how our brain works and how it responds to the perception of our own body, there is an experiment, in which a user sits with both hands on the table and one of them behind a wooden plank.
Instead of the hand behind the iron, a rough rubber hand is placed and both the rubber and the real hand behind the iron begin to stimulate simultaneously.
After a few minutes of stimulation, the executor of the experiment gives a strong hammer to the rubber hand and the volunteer reacts as if he had been hammered in his own hand.
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Scientist Pablo Lanillos from the Technological University of Munich (Germany) seeks to ensure that machines can recognize their own bodies just like humans.
The objective of this project is that machines can recognize their own body and distinguish it from other elements that are around it, through learning algorithms.
For the first time they have managed to repeat the rubber hand experiment in robots, specifically the displacement of the general outline of the body, which adapts to new sensations just like in humans.
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Contrary to other researchers who try to solve this from pure engineering, Pablo Lanillos' team looks at how humans work, to develop that improved artificial intelligence.
The ultimate goal is that humanoid robots are aware of their body and can have something like a robotic "I" concept, which helps them differentiate themselves from the rest of the things around them.
More information:
https://psicologiaymente.com/neurociencias/ilusion-mano-goma
https://www.agenciasinc.es/Entrevistas/Hemos-logrado-que-un-robot-replique-la-ilusion-de-la-mano-de-goma-por-primera-vez
Versión en español