CS Talk
Speaker: Giulio Sandini - Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia – Genova, Italy
Title: Anthropomorphic Robots and Humane Interaction
Host: Brian Scassellati
Abstract:
Since the first “modern” humanoid robot built at Waseda University in the ’70, research based on the use of robots with anthropomorphic shape has expanded enormously by contributing to and exploiting the advancements of “general robots” technologies. Today the sensory and motor abilities of robots are approaching those of humans and creating the impression that robots in different forms and shapes (e.g. autonomous cars) and controlled through cloud computing, will become ubiquitous in the future entering our everyday life. Among the many questions raised by this futuristic view it is worth asking if anthropomorphism has and added value in advancing robotics toward the science fiction world described by Asimov where humans and robots co-exist and collaborate in a humane way. Is the hypothetical added value limited to implementing solutions to facilitate robot’s physical interaction with a human-centric world (such as robot hands to use tools or legs to climb stairs) or there are major missing ingredients and relevant scientific questions that anthropomorphic robots can help us identify and develop?
During the talk I will argue that, besides the “explicit anthropomorphism” captured by the robot’s physical shape, the implementation of the humane social interaction described in Asimov’s world, must address, irrespective of the outside appearance of the robot’s body, a “hidden anthropomorphism” embedded in the way humans move and interact. This effort, besides advancing the technology of the “explicit robot”, can serve a unique role in advancing the knowledge of the “hidden robot” by joining forces with the communities studying the cognitive aspects of our being humans.
Bio:
Giulio Sandini is Founding Director of the Italian Institute of Technology and full professor of bioengineering at the University of Genoa. After his graduation in Electronic Engineering (Bioengineering) at the University of Genova was research fellow and assistant professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa where he investigated aspects of visual processing at the level of single neurons as well as aspects of visual perception in human adults and children. He has been Visiting Research Associate at the Children’s Hospital and Department of Neurology of the Harvard Medical School in Boston where he developed diagnostic techniques based on brain electrical activity mapping. After his return to Genova in 1984 as associate professor, in 1990 he founded the LIRA-Lab (Laboratory for Integrated Advanced Robotics, www.liralab.it). In 1996 he was Visiting Scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Lab of MIT.
Since July 2006 Giulio Sandini has been appointed Director of Research at the Italian Institute of Technology where he has established and is currently directing the department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences. RBCS department concentrates on a multidisciplinary approach to human centered technologies encompassing machine learning and artificial cognition, exploring the brain mechanisms at the basis of motor behavior, learning, multimodal interaction, and sensorimotor integration.
The website: www.iit.it/rbcs