Swedish Startup IntuiCell Unveils Luna: A Robot Dog with Human-Like Learning Capabilities

Robot dog learns, adapts like humans, Swedish AI startup IntuiCell says

STOCKHOLM, March 19 (Reuters) - A Swedish AI startup company has created a robot dog named Luna that has a functional digital nervous system capable of learning and adapting like humans and many animals, the company, IntuiCell, said on Wednesday. In one of the first-use cases of physical agentic AI, which can make decisions and take actions towards specific goals rather than just perform narrow tasks or generate content, the robot dog would be able to learn like a real dog. IntuiCell will hire a dog trainer - instead of integrating a generative AI model and vast datasets - to teach Luna to walk, based on how neurons interact and process information, it said. "What we have built is the first software that allows any machine to learn like humans and animals do," CEO and co-founder Viktor Luthman said in an interview. "There's no pre training, no offline simulations and no billion-dollar data centre in the background, but there's a nervous system that allows the machine to learn." Indeed, the robot dog's potential would lead to advances in human-like robots' capabilities in different environments, he said. "The next step is exploring humanoid robotics, exploring autonomous robotics in unpredictable environments such as space exploration, deep sea exploration, or disaster response," Luthman said. Intelligent machines could be sent to Mars, for example, to build future habitats for people, an environment where the robots cannot be pre-trained and would need to be able to solve problems as they arise, he said. While Luna can currently stand up on its feet, the robot dog would perceive, process and improve through direct interactions with the world. Formed as a spin-out from Lund University in Sweden in 2020, IntuiCell is funded by Sweden's Navigare Ventures, Norway's SNÖ Ventures and the European Union. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Bernadette Baum Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence Supantha Mukherjee Thomson Reuters Supantha leads the European Technology and Telecoms coverage, with a special focus on emerging technologies such as AI and 5G. He has been a journalist for about 18 years. He joined Reuters in 2006 and has covered a variety of beats ranging from financial sector to technology. He is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Swedish firm's robot dog Luna learns like humans using neural AI

Luna showcases the first software enabling any machine to learn like humans and animals do. A European AI startup has introduced Luna, a robot dog equipped with a digital nervous system that mimics human and animal learning. Developed by Swedish firm IntuiCell, Luna represents one of the first applications of physical agentic AI, allowing it to make decisions, adapt, and pursue goals autonomously, much like a real dog. IntuiCell plans to hire a dog trainer to teach Luna to walk, mimicking how neurons process information, rather than relying on a generative AI model and large datasets, the company told an international news agency. "We aim to give the world what AI's always promised, but hasn't come anywhere close to delivering. Systems that can think and learn the way we do. Machines that can genuinely make sense of any environment. That can actually understand what they're doing. That learn by natural instinct, the way humans and animals do, instead of being fed with synthetic data," reads the firm's website.

Watch a robot dog learn to stand and walk thanks to its 'digital brain'

Move over, Boston Dynamics, as there's a new robot dog in town. Swedish startup IntuiCell has unveiled its AI model that learns and adapts to its environment, demonstrated through a robot dog named Luna. While most traditional animal-like robots have been trained on specific movements using machine learning that they can then execute, IntuiCell has a different approach: an AI agent that educates itself autonomously. The company calls the concept a "digital nervous system," as it mimics a biological nervous system and allows the robot to experiment, process, and adapt its interactions with the world. Recommended Videos A video shared by IntuiCell shows Luna learning to balance, stand, and walk from random limb movements that are gradually refined into the movements needed to perform various actions: Introducing IntuiCell "For decades, AI has excelled at processing vast amounts of data but has fundamentally been incapable of real intelligence," said Viktor Luthman, CEO and Co-Founder of IntuiCell. "Our system changes that. We've translated the principles of biological learning into software, enabling AI to evolve, adapt, and interact with the world in ways never previously envisaged. Through licensing our digital nervous system, we aim to become the infrastructure for all non-biological intelligence - empowering others to solve real-world problems we cannot foresee today, without a reliance on massive training datasets." The company makes some big claims about the potential of the AI technology and its use of a decentralized learning network that enables learning and adapting in real time. It has potential for use is fields such as deep sea or space exploration, or responding to emergency situations which would be dangerous for humans. "IntuiCell's AI is not just an improved version of machine learning; it is an entirely new category of intelligence," said Udaya Rongala, Researcher and Co-Founder of IntuiCell. "Our work is rooted in 30 years of contrarian neuroscience research and built on a unique understanding of how intelligence emerges from the architecture and dynamics of the nervous system as a whole. The obsession with brute-force scaling, billions of parameters, more compute, and more data is an artifact of a fundamentally wrong approach to achieving intelligence. IntuiCell is not chasing a bigger-is-better paradigm. Intelligence is not our end-goal, but our starting point."

Meet Luna, the new AI robot dog who teaches itself using a digital nervous system and software 'that allows any machine to learn like humans and animals do'

Move over Spot -- aka the Boston Dynamics robot dog doing things like guard Pompei -- a new robot dog is in town to make us awwww in fear. Reuters reports the new dog on the block is developed by Swedish start up IntuiCell. The company claims its pup, called Luna, can learn just like a real boy, thanks to its functional digital nervous system. Most of the robots entertaining us with handstands or traumatising us with fur suits, at the moment are trained by machine learning techniques. This usually requires a tonne of data, and relies on AI to compute through the variables and essentially work through algorithms to sort through uncountable variations and find what works. It often requires some pretraining -- like Nvidia is doing for its GR00T N1 -- or at least a lot of parameter setting, and is a very computational way of doing things. Luna is going about things a different way. The team at IntuiCell are trying to give their robot dog the ability to feel what works, as opposed to thinking it, for its development. This physical, agentic AI, means Luna should be able to figure out how to do things, instead of being specifically programmed for a task. "What we have built is the first software that allows any machine to learn like humans and animals do," says IntuiCell CEO and co-founder Viktor Luthman. "There's no pre training, no offline simulations and no billion-dollar data centre in the background, but there's a nervous system that allows the machine to learn." Right now Luna is just getting started and has just learned to stand; walking is the next big step. Rather than use a massive dataset to teach Luna, IntuiCell intends to hire a dog trainer to help teach Luna to walk. You can get a look at Luna doing its best in the video above. I wonder what kind of treats they're going to use to reward this metal mutt. Though, we may well end up seeing a robotic flesh-fido down the line. Luna's attempts at standing are fairly compared to that of a baby animal, and visually it doesn't look far off. Though the big difference for Luna, other than the burden of life, is it's the first of its kind. There are no parents to help teach it, nor any deep embedded DNA understanding of the world. It's just Luna, and the sensitive nervous system IntuiCell has given it to help navigate the world. So with future iterations, there's little doubt this tech will only get better. The goal here is to have robots that learn independently of large networks and instead can rely on themselves and the environment. This means that if Luna comes up against a brand new task, it should have a chance of figuring out a solution itself. "The next step is exploring humanoid robotics, exploring autonomous robotics in unpredictable environments such as space exploration, deep sea exploration, or disaster response," Luthman said. We could see a future where human-like robots can train themselves to navigate wild environments like the surface of Mars, and hopefully pave the way for humans in their discoveries. I just hope the researchers make sure to treat Luna right and give it lots of pets so that sensory system can learn to put off resenting its creators... for a little while, at least.

Robot Dog Learns, Adapts Like Humans, Swedish AI Startup IntuiCell Says

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish AI startup company has created a robot dog named Luna that has a functional digital nervous system capable of learning and adapting like humans and many animals, the company, IntuiCell, said on Wednesday. In one of the first-use cases of physical agentic AI, which can make decisions and take actions towards specific goals rather than just perform narrow tasks or generate content, the robot dog would be able to learn like a real dog. IntuiCell will hire a dog trainer - instead of integrating a generative AI model and vast datasets - to teach Luna to walk, based on how neurons interact and process information, it said. "What we have built is the first software that allows any machine to learn like humans and animals do," CEO and co-founder Viktor Luthman said in an interview. "There's no pre training, no offline simulations and no billion-dollar data centre in the background, but there's a nervous system that allows the machine to learn." Indeed, the robot dog's potential would lead to advances in human-like robots' capabilities in different environments, he said. "The next step is exploring humanoid robotics, exploring autonomous robotics in unpredictable environments such as space exploration, deep sea exploration, or disaster response," Luthman said. Intelligent machines could be sent to Mars, for example, to build future habitats for people, an environment where the robots cannot be pre-trained and would need to be able to solve problems as they arise, he said. While Luna can currently stand up on its feet, the robot dog would perceive, process and improve through direct interactions with the world. Formed as a spin-out from Lund University in Sweden in 2020, IntuiCell is funded by Sweden's Navigare Ventures, Norway's SNÖ Ventures and the European Union. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Bernadette Baum)