The Power of Motor Babbling

Hod Lipson developed the Starfish robot, a small square body with four arms that stick out. The key is, Lipson doesn't teach it how to use its body. He uses feedback from the world like you're falling to the right or you're crashing into a trash can and so he used that feedback to adjust his next moves. After several weeks of practicing, he got pretty good at it. In this way, it learns itself. You don't need a pre-programmed this robot. It learns its own capabilities.