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• Research in the Area of Robotics Reported from CREST Research Project

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Research from Ghent University in the Area of Artificial Intelligence Described

2013 MAR 4 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Pain & Central Nervous System Week -- Researchers detail new data in Artificial Intelligence. According to news reporting from Ghent, Belgium, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, "Embodiment has led to a revolution in robotics by not thinking of the robot body and its controller as two separate units, but taking into account the interaction of the body with its environment. By investigating the effect of the body on the overall control computation, it has been suggested that the body is effectively performing computations, leading to the term morphological computation."

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Ghent University, "Recent work has linked this to the field of reservoir computing, allowing one to endow morphologies with a theory of universal computation. In this work, we study a family of highly dynamic body structures, called tensegrity structures, controlled by one of the simplest kinds of 'brains.' These structures can be used to model biomechanical systems at different scales. By analyzing this extreme instantiation of compliant structures, we demonstrate the existence of a spectrum of choices of how to implement control in the body-brain composite. We show that tensegrity structures can maintain complex gaits with linear feedback control and that external feedback can intrinsically be integrated in the control loop."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "The various linear learning rules we consider differ in biological plausibility, and no specific assumptions are made on how to implement the feedback in a physical system."

For more information on this research see: Locomotion Without a Brain: Physical Reservoir Computing in Tensegrity Structures. Artificial Life, 2013;19(1):35-66. Artificial Life can be contacted at: Mit Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. (Springer - www.springer.com; Artificial Life - www.springerlink.com/content/1433-5298/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting K. Caluwaerts, University of Ghent, Elect & Informat Syst Department, Reservoir Lab, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.

Keywords for this news article include: Ghent, Brain, Europe, Belgium, Central Nervous System, Artificial Intelligence

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