Developmental robotics
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2008-04-19T10:34:59Z
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'''Developmental Robotics''' ('''DevRob'''), sometimes called [[epigenetic robotics]], is a methodology that uses metaphors from [[developmental psychology]] to develop [[controller]]s for [[autonomous robot]]s. The focus is on a single robot going through stages of [[autonomous mental development]]. Researchers in this field study artificial emotions, self-motivation, and other methods of self-organization.
DevRob is related to, but differs from, [[evolutionary robotics]] ('''ER'''). ER uses populations of robots that evolve over time, whereas DevRob is interested in how the organization of a single robot's control system develops through experience, over time.
DevRob is also related to work done in the domains of [[Robotics]], [[Artificial Life]].
Similar to developmental robotics, ''Epigenetic robotics'' is an interdisciplinary research area with the goal of understanding biological systems by the integration between [[neuroscience]], [[developmental psychology]] and [[engineering|engineering sciences]]. Epigenetic systems are characterized by a prolonged developmental process through which varied and complex [[cognitive]] and [[perception|perceptual]] structures [[emergence|emerge]] as a result of the interaction of an [[embodiment|embodied system]] with a physical and social environment. An additional goal is to enable [[robot]]s to autonomously develop [[skills]] for any particular environment instead of programming them for a specific environment.
==History==
DevRob was first proposed with Weng et al.s ''Autonomous mental development by robots and animals. Science 291:599 600.''
The first undergraduate [http://dangermouse.brynmawr.edu/cs380/ courses] in DevRob were offered at [[Bryn Mawr College]] and [[Swarthmore College]] in the Spring of 2003 by Douglas Blank and Lisa Meeden, respectively.
The [http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~alex/classes/2005_Fall_610as/ first graduate course] in DevRob was offered at [[Iowa State University]] by Alexander Stoytchev in the Fall of 2005.
==Links and further Information==
===Academic institutions and researchers in the field ===
* [http://www.feelix-growing.org/ FeelixGrowing Project]: A European-funded project to study socio-emotional development in robots, humans, and non-human primates. See also its [[Feelix Growing|Wikipedia entry]]
* [[Michigan State University]] -- Embodied Intelligence Lab: http://www.cse.msu.edu/ei
* Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris: http://www.csl.sony.fr/Research/Topics/DevelopmentalRobotics/
* University of Tokyo -- Intelligent Systems and Informatics Lab: http://www.isi.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
* [http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/cogbotlab.html Cognitive Robotics Lab] of [[Juergen Schmidhuber]] at [[IDSIA]] and [[Technical University of Munich]]
* LIRA-Lab, University of Genova, Italy: http://www.liralab.it
* The University of Texas at Austin, UTCS Intelligent Robotics Lab: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/qr/robotics/bootstrap-learning.html
* [http://www.robotcub.org/ RobotCub Project]: A 5 years European founded project to study cognition with a robot like a two years old child
* [[Bryn Mawr College]]'s [http://cs.brynmawr.edu/devrob/ Developmental Robotics Project]: research projects by faculty and students at Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr Colleges, Philadelphia, PA, USA
* [http://eksl.isi.edu/cgi-bin/page.cgi?page=project-jean.html Jean Project]: Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California
* [http://www.nrl.navy.mil/aic/iss/aas/CognitiveRobots.php Cognitive Robotics (including Hide and Seek) at the Naval Research Laboratory]
===Main Conferences===
* Epigentic Robotics: http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org/
* Developmental Robotics: http://cs.brynmawr.edu/DevRob05/
===Blogs and Other Links===
* Developing Intelligence: http://develintel.blogspot.com
* Developmental Robotics: http://developmentalrobotics.org : general information about developmental robotics
[[Category:Robotics]]