Synopses & Reviews
Morpho-functional Machines are a set of tools for investigating the design of embodied intelligence in autonomous bio-artifact systems. The focus in Morpho-functional Machines is on the balance of morphology, materials, and control; intelligent behavior emerges from the interaction of an autonomous system with a real-world environment. How, then, should body morphology, body materials, and sensory systems be designed to achieve a certain set of tasks or desired behaviors in a particular environment? This and other questions were addressed at the International Workshop on Morpho-functional Machines held in Tokyo in 2001. Collected here are the revised papers from the workshop, providing a new perspective for understanding embodied intelligence. Presenting the innovative concept of Morpho-functional Machines, this book is a valuable source for scientists and engineers working in ethnology, cognitive sciences, robotic engineering, and artificial intelligence.
Table of Contents
Morpho-functional Machines: Basics and Research Issues.- Deployable Structures in Biology.- Evolving Task Specific Optimal Morphologies for an Artificial Insect Eye.- Co-evolving Control and Morphology with LEGO Robots.- Facilitating Controller Evolution in Morpho-functional Machines - A Bipedal Case Study.- Amoeba-like Robots in the Perspective of Control Architecture and Morphology/Materials.- A Skeletal Framework Artificial Hand Actuated by Pneumatic Artificial Muscles.- Face Robot - Soft Material and Multiple Actuation for Facial Expressions.- Homogeneous Distributed Mechanical Systems.- Emerging of Group Formation - Morphological Configuration of Multi-Robot System - Evolving Morphologies and Neural Controllers Based on the Same Underlying Principle: Specific Ligand-Receptor Interactions.- Evolving Complete Agents using Artificial Ontogeny.- Design Principles of Morpho-functional Machines.