Bio-Inspired Solutions for Intelligent Android Perception
and Control
PRESENTER:
Emil Petriu
University of Ottawa
ABSTRACT:
In order to naturally blend within human society, the new-generation
robots should not only look as humans, but should also behave as much as
possible as humans. They are expected to be, as initially imagined by
?apek in his R.U.R. Rossum's Universal Robots play, anthropomorphic
artefacts, androids, enabled to think on their own and governed by
Asimov's laws of robotics hardwired into every robot's positronic brain.
While for a long time, engineers have built upon mathematics, physics and
chemistry in order to develop an ever growing variety of industrial
artefacts and machines, this approach cannot anymore rise to the challenge
of designing these androids. The time has now arrived to add biology and
more specifically, human anatomy, physiology and psychology to the
scientific sources of knowledge to develop a new, bio-inspired, generation
of intelligent androids. Advocating this emergent trend, this presentation
will discuss a number of relevant issues such as bio-inspired robot
sensors and neural networks, human-robot interaction techniques for
symbiotic partnership, as well as moral, ethical, theological, legal, and
social challenges in a soon-to-be cyborg-society world.