BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//talks.cam.ac.uk//v3//EN
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Europe/London
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:BST
DTSTART:19700329T010000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:GMT
DTSTART:19701025T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
CATEGORIES:CUED Control Group Seminars
SUMMARY:Morphological Computation - A Potential Solution f
 or the Control Problem in Soft Robotics - Helmut H
 auser\, University of Bristol
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20190613T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20190613T150000
UID:TALK123652AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/123652
DESCRIPTION:Morphological computation is a concept based on ob
 servations in nature that show that morphology pla
 ys a crucial role in the emergence of intelligent 
 behaviour. Our work in the context of robotics dem
 onstrates that morphological properties\, such as 
 their dynamic behaviour\, can implement computatio
 nal functionality and\, as a result\,  help to emb
 ody control and/or facilitate sensing.  This means
  we can outsource control to the physical body of 
 robots allowing us to build machines with intellig
 ent morphologies. One implication of our work is t
 hat\, in order to have a computationally powerful 
 body\,  it needs to have complex nonlinear dynamic
 s\, exhibit a high-dimensional state space\,  and 
 compliance and noise are beneficial. Interestingly
 \, the exact same properties are unwanted and typi
 cally suppressed in conventional robotic designs a
 s they make it harder to model and control them. H
 owever\, counterintuitively\,  embracing complex d
 ynamics can help us to outsource functionality to 
 the body and therefore simplify the underlying con
 trol and learning problems. This points to a parad
 igm shift in robot design\, establishes a potentia
 l solution for the control problem of  the recentl
 y emerged field of soft robotics\, and it might pr
 ovide us with insights into why biological systems
  are so much more robust and adaptive than our sta
 te-of-the-art robots.\nWe will introduce theoretic
 al models for morphological computation and show h
 ow they can be used for computation and control in
  simulations\, as well as in real-world robotic pl
 atforms. Furthermore\, we discuss the wide-reachin
 g implication of morphological computation and how
  they point to new and exciting research questions
  leading us from computing octopus arms\, to spide
 r web inspired signal processing devices\,  to art
 ificially growing robots.
LOCATION:Cambridge University Engineering Department\, Lect
 ure Theatre 6
CONTACT:Alberto Padoan
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR