Bio A I From Embodied Cognition To Enactive Robotics

Even before the deep learning revolution, the landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) was already changing drastically in the 90s. Embodied intelligence, it was proposed, must play a crucial role in the design of intelligent machines. This new wave was inspired by what is today known as Embodied and Enactive Cognitive Science or E-Cognition, which considers that cognitive activity does not reduce to the intellectual capacities of agents being able to represent their environments. E-cognition set AI and robotics in a new direction, in which intelligent machines are required to interact with the environment, and where this interaction does not reduce to explicit representations or prespecified algorithms. These ideas revolutionized the way we think about intelligent machines and cognition, but these theoretical advances are only partially reflected in modern approaches to AI and machine learning (ML). Despite deeply impressive achievements, AI/ML still struggles to recapitulate the kinds of intelligence we find in natural systems, whether we are considering individual insects (e.g. simultaneous localization and mapping), or swarm behaviour (e.g. forum sensing and ensemble inferences), and especially the kinds of flexibility and high-level reasoning characteristic of human cognition.

Originally published in 1995, this volume is the direct result of a conference in which a number of leading researchers from the fields of artificial intelligence and biology gathered to examine whether there was any ground to assume that a new AI paradigm was forming itself and what the essential ingredients of this new paradigm were. A great deal of scepsis is justified when researchers, particularly in the cognitive sciences, talk about a new paradigm. Shifts in paradigm mean not only new ideas but also shifts in what constitutes good problems, what counts as a result, the experimental practice to validate results, and the technological tools needed to do research. Due to the complexity of the subject matter, paradigms abound in the cognitive sciences -- connectionism being the most prominent newcomer in the mid-1980s. This workshop group was brought together in order to clarify the common ground, see what had been achieved so far, and examine in which way the research could move further. This volume is a reflection of this important meeting. It contains contributions which were distributed before the workshop but then substantially broadened and revised to reflect the workshop discussions and more recent technical work. Written in polemic form, sometimes criticizing the work done thus far within the new paradigm, this collection includes research program descriptions, technical contributions, and position papers.

An exploration of embodied intelligence and its implications points toward a theory of intelligence in general; with case studies of intelligent systems in ubiquitous computing, business and management, human memory, and robotics. How could the body influence our thinking when it seems obvious that the brain controls the body? In How the Body Shapes the Way We Think, Rolf Pfeifer and Josh Bongard demonstrate that thought is not independent of the body but is tightly constrained, and at the same time enabled, by it. They argue that the kinds of thoughts we are capable of have their foundation in our embodiment—in our morphology and the material properties of our bodies. This crucial notion of embodiment underlies fundamental changes in the field of artificial intelligence over the past two decades, and Pfeifer and Bongard use the basic methodology of artificial intelligence—"understanding by building"—to describe their insights. If we understand how to design and build intelligent systems, they reason, we will better understand intelligence in general. In accessible, nontechnical language, and using many examples, they introduce the basic concepts by building on recent developments in robotics, biology, neuroscience, and psychology to outline a possible theory of intelligence. They illustrate applications of such a theory in ubiquitous computing, business and management, and the psychology of human memory. Embodied intelligence, as described by Pfeifer and Bongard, has important implications for our understanding of both natural and artificial intelligence.

Originating from a Dagstuhl seminar, the collection of papers presented in this book constitutes on the one hand a representative state-of-the-art survey of embodied artificial intelligence, and on the other hand the papers identify the important research trends and directions in the field. Following an introductory overview, the 23 papers are organized into topical sections on - philosophical and conceptual issues - information, dynamics, and morphology - principles of embodiment for real-world applications - developmental approaches - artificial evolution and self-reconfiguration

There are many different approaches to understanding human consciousness. By conducting research to better understand various biological mechanisms, these can be redefined and utilized for technological purposes. Advanced Research on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly research on the biological elements of human cognition and examines the applications of consciousness within computing environments. Featuring exhaustive coverage on a broad range of innovative topics and perspectives, such as artificial intelligence, bio-robotics, and human-computer interaction, this publication is ideally designed for academics, researchers, professionals, graduate students, and practitioners seeking current research on the exploration of the intricacies of consciousness and different approaches of perception.

The current state of the art in cognitive robotics, covering the challenges of building AI-powered intelligent robots inspired by natural cognitive systems. A novel approach to building AI-powered intelligent robots takes inspiration from the way natural cognitive systems—in humans, animals, and biological systems—develop intelligence by exploiting the full power of interactions between body and brain, the physical and social environment in which they live, and phylogenetic, developmental, and learning dynamics. This volume reports on the current state of the art in cognitive robotics, offering the first comprehensive coverage of building robots inspired by natural cognitive systems. Contributors first provide a systematic definition of cognitive robotics and a history of developments in the field. They describe in detail five main approaches: developmental, neuro, evolutionary, swarm, and soft robotics. They go on to consider methodologies and concepts, treating topics that include commonly used cognitive robotics platforms and robot simulators, biomimetic skin as an example of a hardware-based approach, machine-learning methods, and cognitive architecture. Finally, they cover the behavioral and cognitive capabilities of a variety of models, experiments, and applications, looking at issues that range from intrinsic motivation and perception to robot consciousness. Cognitive Robotics is aimed at an interdisciplinary audience, balancing technical details and examples for the computational reader with theoretical and experimental findings for the empirical scientist.

The robotics industry is growing rapidly, and to a large extent the development of this market sector is due to the area of social robotics – the production of robots that are designed to enter the space of human social interaction, both physically and semantically. Since social robots present a new type of social agent, they have been aptly classified as a disruptive technology, i.e. the sort of technology which affects the core of our current social practices and might lead to profound cultural and social change. Due to its disruptive and innovative potential, social robotics raises not only questions about utility, ethics, and legal aspects, but calls for “robo-philosophy” – the comprehensive philosophical reflection from the perspectives of all philosophical disciplines. This book presents the proceedings of the first conference in this new area, “Robo-Philosophy 2014 – Sociable Robots and the Future of Social Relations, held in Aarhus, Denmark, in August 2014. The short papers and abstracts collected here address questions of social robotics from the perspectives of philosophy of mind, social ontology, ethics, meta-ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, intercultural philosophy, and metaphilosophy. Social robotics is still in its early stages, but it is precisely now that we need to reflect its possible cultural repercussions. This book is accessible to a wide readership and will be of interest to everyone involved in the development and use of social robotics applications, from social roboticists to policy makers.

The Springer Handbook of Bio-/Neuro-Informatics is the first published book in one volume that explains together the basics and the state-of-the-art of two major science disciplines in their interaction and mutual relationship, namely: information sciences, bioinformatics and neuroinformatics. Bioinformatics is the area of science which is concerned with the information processes in biology and the development and applications of methods, tools and systems for storing and processing of biological information thus facilitating new knowledge discovery. Neuroinformatics is the area of science which is concerned with the information processes in biology and the development and applications of methods, tools and systems for storing and processing of biological information thus facilitating new knowledge discovery. The text contains 62 chapters organized in 12 parts, 6 of them covering topics from information science and bioinformatics, and 6 cover topics from information science and neuroinformatics. Each chapter consists of three main sections: introduction to the subject area, presentation of methods and advanced and future developments. The Springer Handbook of Bio-/Neuroinformatics can be used as both a textbook and as a reference for postgraduate study and advanced research in these areas. The target audience includes students, scientists, and practitioners from the areas of information, biological and neurosciences. With Forewords by Shun-ichi Amari of the Brain Science Institute, RIKEN, Saitama and Karlheinz Meier of the University of Heidelberg, Kirchhoff-Institute of Physics and Co-Director of the Human Brain Project.