This video didn't win the AAAI Video competition, but it is certainly good enough to amuse you while teaching you some basic AI. We also  think that this crew deserves a TV series of its own own.

The AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) runs an annual video competition and this year not only are the winners worth watching, so are many of the runners up. The idea is to promote AI by awarding the best videos "Shakey" awards - and if you don't know Shakey was a now legendary early robot built at SRI.

There are fourteen videos listed in the report on this year's competition and our favorite is The Furlough Gambit by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The credits mention Anthony M. Harrison, Laura M. Hiatt, William L. Adams, Wallace E. Lawson, Sangeet S. Khemlani, Franklin P. Tamborello, Samuel N. Blissard, J. Gregory Trafton. Unfortunately the names of the real stars, the two robots, aren't given.

Watch and enjoy:

"The Naval Research Laboratory's Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence is engaged in research and development efforts designed to address the application of artificial intelligence technology and techniques to critical Navy and national problems. Research is directed toward understanding the design and operation of systems capable of improving performance based on experience; efficient and effective interaction with other systems and with humans; sensor-based control of autonomous activity; and the integration of varieties of reasoning as necessary to support complex decision-making."

At the end of the video, where the techniques are explained, didn't you want to know what happened in the lab? I know I did and this is the reason I think it could be a TV series. 

If you want the "back story", the good news is that there are two more episodes of Robotic Secrets Revealed series:

Robotic Secrets Revealed, Episode 001

Episode 002 gives you some idea of what might be going on in the lab in any follow on to episode 003. 

Robotic Secrets Revealed, Episode 002: The Trouble Begins

If they don't get a commission from a tv company we can only hope that they make an Episode 004 if only to enter next year's AAAI:

"The ninth edition of the AAAI video competition will be held in conjunction with the AAAI-15 conference in Austin TX, USA, January 25-29 2015. At the award ceremony, authors of award-winning videos will be presented with "Shakeys", trophies named in honour of SRI's Shakey robot and its pioneering video. Award-winning videos will be screened at this ceremony.

The goal of the competition is to show the world how much fun AI is by documenting exciting artificial intelligence advances in research, education, and application."

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