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Biorobotics
Barbara Webb (Editor), Thomas R. Consi (Editor)
Animal-like robots are playing an increasingly important role
as a link between the worlds of biology and engineering. The
multidisciplinary field of biorobotics provides tools for
biologists studying animal behaviour and test-beds for the
study and evaluation of biological algorithms for potential
engineering applications. This book focuses on the role of
robots as tools for biologists. An animal is profoundly affected
by the many subtle and complex signals within its environment,
and because the animal invariably disturbs its environment,
it constantly creates a new set of stimuli. Biorobots are
now enabling biologists to understand these complex animal-environment
relationships. This book unites scientists from diverse disciplines
who are using biorobots to probe animal behaviour and brain
function. The first section describes the sensory systems
of biorobotic crickets, lobsters, and ants and the visual
system of flies. The second section discusses robots with
cockroach motor systems and the intriguing question of how
the evolution of complex motor abilities could lead to the
development of cognitive functions. The final section discusses
higher brain function and neural modelling in mammalian and
humanoid robots.
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Digital
Biology
Peter Bentley
Synopsis
Imagine a future world where computers can create universes
- digital environments made from binary ones and zeros.
Imagine that within these universes there exist biological
forms that reproduce, grow and think. Imagine plant-like
forms, ant colonies, immune systems and brains, all adapting,
evolving and getting better at solving problems. Imagine
if our computers became greenhouses for a new kind of nature.
Just think what digital biology could do for us. Perhaps
it could evolve new designs for us, think up ways to detect
fraud using digital neurons, or solve scheduling problems
with ants. Perhaps it could create music from the patterns
of growth of digital seashells, or allow computers to become
creative and inventive. Now stop imagining... :
Clear and easy to read, and fascinating in parts,
4 October, 2001
Reviewer: A reader from London, England
I was a little dissappointed by the first sections in this
book, which I found rather simplistic, but that might be
because I have read other books about neural networks and
evolutionary programming - if I hadn't, this would be a
great introduction. Where the book really shines for me
is the section on artificial immunity, which is a whole
new way of making learning, adapting machines, which was
a revelation to me.
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Neurotechnology for Biomimetic Robots
Joseph Ayers, Davis Joel L., Alan Rudolph
Synopsis
The goal of neurotechnology is to confer the performance advantages
of animal systems on robotic machines. Biomimetic robots differ
from traditional robots in that they are agile, relatively
cheap, and able to deal with real-world environments. The
engineering of these robots requires a thorough understanding
of the biological systems on which they are based, at both
the biomechanical and physiological levels. This work provides
an in-depth overview of the field. The areas covered include
myomorphic actuators, which mimic muscle action; neuromorphic
sensors, which, like animal sensors, represent sensory modalities
such as light, pressure, and motion in a labeled-line code;
biomimetic controllers, based on the relatively simple control
systems of invertebrate animals; and the autonomous behaviors
that are based on an animal's selection of behaviors from
a species-specific behavioral "library." The ultimate
goal is to develop a truly autonomous robot, one able to navigate
and interact with its environment solely on the basis of sensory
feedback without prompting from a human operator. |
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Biologically
Inspired Robot Behavior Engineering
Duro, R.J. (Universidade da Coruna, Spain), Santos, J. (Universidade
da Coruna, Spain), Grana, M.
This overview of research on biologically inspired autonomous
robotics crosses several boundaries in the field of robotics
and the closely related field of artificial life. The key
aim throughout the book is to obtain autonomy at different
levels.
Description
This overview of research on biologically inspired autonomous
robotics crosses several boundaries in the field of robotics
and the closely related field of artificial life. The key
aim throughout the book is to obtain autonomy at different
levels. From the basic motor behaviour in some exotic robot
architectures right through to the planning of complex behaviors
or the evolution of robot control structures, the book explores
different degrees and definitions of autonomous behavior.
These behaviours are supported by a wide variety of modeling
techniques: structural grammars, neural networks and fuzzy
logic and evolution underlies many of the development processes.
Thus this text can be used by scientists and students interested
in these areas and provides a general view of the field for
a more general audience.
Table of Contents
Rolling, walking and flying animats or robots
Behavior coordination on monkey-type mobile robots
Visuomotor control in flies and behavior based agents
Using evolutionary methods to parametrize neural models
Biologically inspired NN approaches to real-time collision-free
robot motion planning
Self-adapting NN for mobile robots
Evolving robots able to integrate sensory-motor information
over time
A non computationally intensive neurocontroller for autonomous
mobile robot navigation
Behavior based robot cognitive architectures obtained through
evolution
Modular neural architectures for robotics
Designing neural control architectures for an autonomous robot
using vision to solve complex learning tasks
Robust estimation of the optical flow based on VQ-BF
Steps towards one-shot vision-based self-localization
The TOPS-model
A general learning approach to visually guided 3D-positioning
and pose control of robot arms.
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