Institute of Robotics in Scandinavia (iRobis) has announced commercial availability of Brainstorm®, the world’s first “complete cognitive software system for robots”. The system turns robots into self-developing, adaptive, problem-solving, “thinking” machines.

The system automatically writes control programs for any robot on which it is installed, dramatically shortening development time and cost. The same technology is used to allow robots to adapt to new circumstances and solve other problems while in operation.

The coming of such creatures has been predicted for decades.

But how long does it really take to put thinking, self-developing robots on the market?

The secret ingredient in iRobis’ software is a method called “genetic programming” (GP).

A number of scientists since the time Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species to the present day have suggested that human thought and problem solving follow the same pattern as natural evolution.