Topics Lecture 5:

the approach & opportunities of biorobotics   orientation and navigation   flying without pilot   limbs as high-tech tools   redefining the boundaries between man and machine    a variety of questions, a variety of toys

Bio-robotics and neuro-engineering: what is this about?

the dream of robotics: stupid and dangerous work should be done by intelligent machines instead of unreliable people
neuroscience is at the cutting edge of 21st century engineering: robots need to be designed that mimick living systems ('biomimetics', 'neuromorphics')

principles of biological information processing are very successful

•  biological systems are fast: analogue deployment of quick’n’dirty strategies instead of tedious digital-number crunching
•  biological systems are robust: they are resistant against perturbations (self-stabilising), errors (redundant), injury (healing)
•  biological systems are versatile: they operate in many different situations, can show flexible responses to changes in environments
•  biological systems are cheap: minimise size (and maximise payload), optimise functionality (through evolution: copied in 'artificial life'), maximise output by means of mass production

Insect orientation and navigation

robots can be treated as models to describe behaviour (Webb 2001, cf. Braitenberg’s vehicles in lecture 1: ‘synthetic psychology’)
two simple examples:

	phonotaxis in crickets (Barbara Webb, Stirling): female crickets are attracted by specific songs of male crickets, find the male in its borrow by tracking the sound source
	navigation and orientation of ants (Cataglyphis) in Sahara: integration of optic flow, sun & polarisation compass, path integration (dead reckoning), orientation relative to landmarks  >>>  Sahabot 2   (Lambrinos, Wehner et al.)

Panoramic Vision  

the richness of panoramic vision can be exploited by using panoramic cameras modelled after insect visual systems: lens & parabolic mirror	(Chahl and Srinivasan 1997)
	the polar coordinate images captured with the panoramic camera are 'dewarped' by a computer program to generate conventional cartesian images

used in flying robot: gondola Melissa (AILab Zürich) is a test ‘platform’ to study the integration of motion information (flowfields) for estimating flight speed and travelling distance (no proprioceptive information)	used as instrument to study visual ecology: camera mounted on gantry, controlled by microprocessor and stepping motors >> travelling on exactly defined paths : recording flowfields in natural environments (Zeil & Zanker)

Autonomous vehicles: from flies to helicopters

the ultimate goal is to build fast flying, autonomously stabilising and navigating robots: UAV (unpiloted airborne vehicles)
two typical examples:

autonomous helicopter (no pilot, no remote control), first rsults: visually mediated hovering, terrain following autopilot (Biorobotic Vision Laboratory, Canberra)	autonomous helicopters solving tasks (Robotics Research Lab, USC): AVATAR (Autonomous Vehicle Aerial Tracking And Reconnassaince), opening the possibility of formation flying through the coordination of multiple autonomous flying robots

Robofly: aerodynamic problems

some science fiction: fly-sized autonomous robots (Berkeley Robotics Laboratory)	surprising complications : unexpected issues arising from specifications of motor system – insect aerodynamics is merely understood, requires complicated aerodynamics (Dickinson 2001)

Autonomous airborne vehicles: political issues

the real goal behind many of these efforts: robotic bombers, etc.

strategic advantages of unpioloted airborne vehicles over cruise missiles

•   minimise loss of expensive guidance equipment
•   potential to ‘hunt down’ mobile, relocatable targets

most funds originate from US Air Force, DARPA, NASA, Office of Naval Research...

Perhaps more comfortable: the soft grip

surgical robots (offer high precision and potential to minimise damage)
require advanced mechanical control of tools (for instance, to handle soft, compliant tissues)
– what has biomimetics to offer?

robots mimicking cockroaches (‘bugbots’) are originally designed to walk in unstructured environments with little sensory feedback by robust design of locomotion system, involving a passive rubber spring, like springy resilin-lined joints of arthropods, for passive stabilisation	the same design principle can be extended to the gripper (attached to front limbs) –  it can be adjusted in stiffness for fine deployment of grip force ! (Harvard Biorobotics Laboratory)

tele-manipulation - remotely controlled hand-like actuators : an emerging field of technology

artificial hand has 5 fingers with 14 degrees of freedom, was built uniquely to test the force feedback glove in a dextrous telemanipulation Laboratoire de Robotique de Paris

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by the California Institute of Technology, is NASA's lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system (Mars robots!): Nondestructive Evaluation and Advanced Actuators (NDEAA) Technologies lab JPL's NDEAA lab produces robotic hand that was established as a platform for artificial muscles:  the arm was made by Dr. Graham Whiteley of Sheffield Hallam University, U.K., the hand was equipped with an actuator by Dr. Giovanni Pioggia, University of Pisa, Italy

Artificial limbs

the same type of technology offers new opportunities for replacement of amputated limbs

	conventional prosthesis design :  1849 patented by F. Palmer, improvement of earlier models (increased mobility through artificial knee joint) to supply 30,000 veterans from the Civil War   (… technology for yet more victims of wars …)
anthroform arm project : attempt to copy functional anatomy of arm as close as possible – fibreglass bones and pneumatic actuators (muscles), surgical replacement joints, computational models of neural control circuits (University of Washington Biorobotics Laboratory)

there is an obvious demand for intelligent and biologically inspired engineering in prosthesis !

a potential problem for such high-tech prostheses is the attachment to the patient - control from the brain?
issues of mechanical design and pure joint kinematics >> problem of direct control form nervous system
the goal of this development is ‘neuro-prosthesis’: chronic electrode implants would allow to connect artificial limb to nervous system

W. Craelius, Ruttgers: ‘Dextra’ the best system so far is an artificial hand tapping into the residual sensorimotor system to activate replacement body parts : •      pick up electric signals from more proximal                         muscles/tendons •      learn to control ‘phantom’ fingers •      independent control of 5 fingers

this demonstrates the successful connection of artificial limb to nervous system - so far to peripheral nerve/muscle : what about the CNS ?

New perspectives of primate-machine interaction

the key animal experiment (Wessberg et al 2000):

remote control brain >> robot arm chronic implantation of large electrode array (96 electrodes) long-term recordings > correlational analysis with motor patterns transfer data through web to robotics experts drive robot arm with transmitted signals
	the neuro-scientist (M. Niclolelis) the (owl) monkey the robotic arm

Human brain-machine interaction ? From science to science fiction !

an rather unusual experiment was done by Kevin Warwick in the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading
•     Project Cyborg 1.0
•     Project Cyborg 2.0

‘A sophisticated new microelectronic implant has been developed that allows two-way connection to the nervous system. In one direction, the natural activity of nerves are detected and in the other, nerves can be activated by applied electrical pulses. It is envisaged that such neural connections may, in the future, help people with spinal cord injury or limb amputation.’

Food for thought: merging mind and machine

growth rates of WWW acceleration of computing speed, software efficiency (neural nets, genetic algorithms) - Moore's law predicts that around 2030 your desk PC will have the same computational capacity as your brain ... novel interfaces between nervous system and electronic devices

combined with a neuroscientific theory of the mind, implemented in ever faster computers,
when will the engine of evolution diffuse boundaries between man and machine,
and generate secondary intelligence that will exceed the intelligence of its creators? (Kurzweil 1999)

enthusiastic popular reception of defining technology of 21st century ‘Robo sapiens’ predicts (from the turmoil of an exploding technology) the fusion, or at least close coexistence, of man and (intelligent) machine – ‘apocalyptic optimism’ ?

Other highlights

	Walking in legged robots: insects
	Electrosensory submarines: electric fish
	Groups of collaborating robots
	Neural networks : for pattern generation,   adaptive systems, learning
	Chip design from principles of cortical architecture neuroinformatics (flowfield processor)
	self-assembling structure and behaviour e.g. HYDRA

and some of this engeneering is don through simulated evolution ('artificial life'): see Brooks 2000

The most popular toys for boys and girls …

Khepera Robot Mini Platform
	Lego Lab University of Aarhus: Jungle Cube  this is serious business: see Hogg et al. 1991!!!
Lego mindstorms: vehicles for kids

Conclusions: (wo)man’s intelligent creatures and companions

from INI

in this lecture we were looking at :   basic concepts, variety of methods & applications  of biorobotics & neuroengineering   examples of how, by copying from nature,  engineers can extend/repair biological systems   speculations about the future relation between   man and machine

further reading:

• Braitenberg, V, 1984  Vehicles. Experiments in Synthetic Psychology.  Cambridge MA:  MIT Press.
• Brooks, R 2000  "From robot dreams to reality"  Nature  406, 945-946
• Chahl, J S, Srinivasan, M V 1997  "Reflective surfaces for panoramic imaging"  Applied Optics  36, 8275-8285
• Craelius, W 2002  “The Bionic Man: Restoring Mobility” Science 295; 1018-1021
• Dickinson, M H 2001  "Solving the mystery of insect flight"  Sci.Am.  June 2001, 34-41
• Hogg, D W, Martin, F,  Resnick, M 1991  "Braitenberg Creatures"  MIT Epistemology and Learning Memo  13, 1-10
• Iida, F, Lambrinos, D 2000  "Navigation in an autonomous flying robot by using a biologically inspired visual odometer"  Procceedings of SPIE  4196, 86-97
• Kurzweil, R 1999  "The coming merging of mind and machine"  Sci.Am.  Special Issue 1999,
• Lambrinos, D, Möller, R, Labhart, T, Pfeifer, R, Wehner, R 2000  "A mobile robot employing insect strategies for navigation"  Robotics and Autonomous Systems  30, 39-64
• Srinivasan, M V, Chahl, J S, Weber, K, Venkatesh, S, Nagle, M G, Zhang, S W 1999  "Robot navigation inspired by principles of insect vision"  Robotics and Autonomous Systems  26, 203-216
• Warwick, K 2002 "I, Cyborg", Century; ISBN: 0712669884
• Webb, B 2001  "Can robots make good models of biological behaviour?"  Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24, 1033-1050
• Wessberg, J, Stambaugh, C R, Kralik, J D, Beck, P D, Laubach, M, Chapin, J K, Kim, J, Biggs, S J, Srinivasan, M A, Nicolelis, M A L 2000  "Real-time prediction of hand trajectory by ensembles of cortical neurons in primates"  Nature  408, 361-365

some study questions

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