Combining Reflexes and External Sensory Information in a Neuromusculoskeletal Model to Control a Quadruped Robot

This article examines the importance of integrating locomotion and cognitive information for achieving dynamic locomotion from a viewpoint combining biology and ecological psychology. We present a mammalian neuromusculoskeletal model from external sensory information processing to muscle activation, which includes: 1) a visual-attention control mechanism for controlling attention to external inputs; 2) object recognition representing the primary motor cortex; 3) a motor control model that determines motor commands traveling down the corticospinal and reticulospinal tracts; 4) a central pattern generation model representing pattern generation in the spinal cord; and 5) a muscle reflex model representing the muscle model and its reflex mechanism. The proposed model is able to generate the locomotion of a quadruped robot in flat and natural terrain. The experiment also shows the importance of a postural reflex mechanism when experiencing a sudden obstacle. We show the reflex mechanism when a sudden obstacle is separately detected from both external (retina) and internal (touching afferent) sensory information. We present the biological rationale for supporting the proposed model. Finally, we discuss future contributions, trends, and the importance of the proposed research

Strong continuity of life and mind: the free energy framework, predictive processing and ecological psychology

Located at the intersection of philosophy of cognitive science and philosophy of biology, this thesis aims to provide a novel approach to understanding the strong continuity between life and mind. This thesis applies the Free Energy Framework, predictive processing and the conceptual apparatus from ecological psychology to reveal different manners in which the organizational processes and principles underlying life have been enriched so as to result in cognitive processes. By using these anticipatory cognitive frameworks this thesis unveils different forms of cognition at work in surprising places and considers how such expressions of cognition are ultimately driven by various forms of environmental complexity. Importing the concepts of affordances, environmental information and perceptual medium from ecological psychology into predictive processing and the Free Energy Framework, an empirically grounded account of cognition as an anticipatory process that allows living systems to adapt to various degrees of uncertainty in their environments at distinct and yet overlapping timescales is argued for. In doing so, this thesis attempts to identify both the explanatory limits of ecological coupling accounts of perception and action, and the possible environmental conditions under which the predictive brain evolved from its decentralized non-neural predecessors as a solution to uncertainty. In contributing to a novel approach to constraining the mind, the various concepts deployed in both philosophy and cognitive science are sharpened, furthering the current debate on what cognition is and how it is related to life

Space networks: towards hodological space design for urban man, starting with a cognitive / perceptual notation

The main purpose of this thesis on Space Networks is to make a contribution to urban design0A iming at the level of the urban designer's or architect's prestructure (after the site has been seen,and before any plan/section/elevation drawings are done),it is meant for those designers involved in res earth themselves,and who accept the idea that they are,in a way, the first users of what they design.The additional purpose is to provide a sociological, psychological,and spatial scale context for dynamic design. Space is looked upon as a network.Where the space-of-possible- movement (taking the shortest/most agreable/most energy demanding/etc way, depending whether you are in a hurry/strolling/exercising yourself/etc respectively) is called Hodological Space.Movement --through-space-with-intention is used as a generator for design.We start with a proposed cognitive/perceptual notation of four spatial conceptual components: First with Section-Perspective (by which we do away with the facades,and considering the building not in isolation ---in the form of an endless isometric). Then the Tube (employing the anticipation,cognitively,of the projecting brain of man for his path of action),and also the Sequential (progressive sequences) and Binary (visual contrasts of 'wholes')- -these perceived as man moves through his Hodological space.There are six Chapters and an Appendix.Chapter I is introductory,and its three parts are extended in the Chapters that follow: Movement Through Space in Chapters 3 and 4,Space- Movement Notation in Chapters 5 and 6,and the Intended Fieldwork And Pilot Questionnaires in the Appendix.In Chapter 2 the clarifying distinction is made between space for activity and space for profit.Which issue,far from a refinement,shifts the problem back to where it belongs: the society values --of which the designer himself partakes. ln Chapter 3 man is not seen from the stimulus -response,but the cognitive psychology side: not passive,but projecting his intentions into his environment --and if it goes a bit too far in that direction it is in compensation for the opposite view.ln Chapter 4 a comprehensive classification of space,into Hodological,Ambient,and Personal,is made for the designer's understanding and use.All three spaces are more fundamental to him than Euclidean space which is significant only in relation to them.ln Chapter 5 the four-component Notation is a rticulated into the cognitive /perceptual anthropological model of cognitive anticipation (see Tube),and perceptual experience (see Sequential and Binary),together with a comparative discussion of the other notatorst work,ranging between the scales of landscape design (Halprin) and microspace behaviour (Hall),In Chapter 6 the proposition of using the present anthropological model of a cognitive /perceptual notation of design-for-movement has been taken up as a process employed in experimental design.The program of designing for Hodological space --as well as for Ambient space which accompanies progress through Hodological space --links psychological research to design for the pedestrian

Integrative Biomimetics of Autonomous Hexapedal Locomotion

Dürr V, Arena PP, Cruse H, et al. Integrative Biomimetics of Autonomous Hexapedal Locomotion. Frontiers in Neurorobotics. 2019;13: 88.Despite substantial advances in many different fields of neurorobotics in general, and biomimetic robots in particular, a key challenge is the integration of concepts: to collate and combine research on disparate and conceptually disjunct research areas in the neurosciences and engineering sciences. We claim that the development of suitable robotic integration platforms is of particular relevance to make such integration of concepts work in practice. Here, we provide an example for a hexapod robotic integration platform for autonomous locomotion. In a sequence of six focus sections dealing with aspects of intelligent, embodied motor control in insects and multipedal robots—ranging from compliant actuation, distributed proprioception and control of multiple legs, the formation of internal representations to the use of an internal body model—we introduce the walking robot HECTOR as a research platform for integrative biomimetics of hexapedal locomotion. Owing to its 18 highly sensorized, compliant actuators, light-weight exoskeleton, distributed and expandable hardware architecture, and an appropriate dynamic simulation framework, HECTOR offers many opportunities to integrate research effort across biomimetics research on actuation, sensory-motor feedback, inter-leg coordination, and cognitive abilities such as motion planning and learning of its own body size

Relationship descriptors for interactive motion adaptation

In this thesis we present an interactive motion adaptation scheme for close interactions between skeletal characters and mesh structures, such as navigating restricted environments and manipulating tools. We propose a new spatial-relationship based representation to encode character-object interactions describing the kinematics of the body parts by the weighted sum of vectors relative to descriptor points selectively sampled over the scene. In contrast to previous discrete representations that either only handle static spatial relationships, or require offline, costly optimization processes, our continuous framework smoothly adapts the motion of a character to deformations in the objects and character morphologies in real-time whilst preserving the original context and style of the scene. We demonstrate the strength of working in our relationship-descriptor space in tackling the issue of motion editing under large environment deformations by integrating procedural animation techniques such as repositioning contacts in an interaction whilst preserving the context and style of the original animation. Furthermore we propose a method that can be used to adapt animations from template objects to novel ones by solving for mappings between the two in our relationship-descriptor space effectively transferring an entire motion from one object to a new one of different geometry whilst ensuring continuity across all frames of the animation, as opposed to mapping static poses only as is traditionally achieved. The experimental results show that our method can be used for a wide range of applications, including motion retargeting for dynamically changing scenes, multi-character interactions, and interactive character control and deformation transfer for scenes that involve close interactions. We further demonstrate a key use case in retargeting locomotion to uneven terrains and curving paths convincingly for bipeds and quadrupeds. Our framework is useful for artists who need to design animated scenes interactively, and modern computer games that allow users to design their own virtual characters, objects and environments, such that they can recycle existing motion data for a large variety of different configurations without the need to manually reconfigure motion from scratch or store expensive combinations of animation in memory. Most importantly it’s achieved in real-time

A 3D Digital Approach to the Stylistic and Typo-Technological Study of Small Figurines from Ayia Irini, Cyprus

The thesis aims to develop a 3D digital approach to the stylistic and typo-technological study of coroplastic, focusing on small figurines. The case study to test the method is a sample of terracotta statuettes from an assemblage of approximately 2000 statues and figurines found at the beginning of the 20th century in a rural open-air sanctuary at Ayia Irini (Cyprus) by the archaeologists of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition. The excavators identified continuity of worship at the sanctuary from the Late Cypriot III (circa 1200 BC) to the end of the Cypro-Archaic II period (ca. 475 BC). They attributed the small figurines to the Cypro-Archaic I-II. Although the excavation was one of the first performed through the newly established stratigraphic method, the archaeologists studied the site and its material following a traditional, merely qualitative approach. Theanalysis of the published results identified a classification of the material with no-clear-cut criteria, and their overlap between types highlights ambiguities in creating groups and classes. Similarly, stratigraphic arguments and different opinions among archaeologists highlight the need for revising. Moreover, pastlegislation allowed the excavators to export half of the excavated antiquities, creating a dispersion of the assemblage. Today, the assemblage is still partly exhibited at the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia and in four different museums in Sweden. Such a setting prevents to study, analyse and interpret the assemblageholistically. This research proposes a 3D chaîne opératoire methodology to study the collection’s small terracotta figurines, aiming to understand the context’s function and social role as reflected by the classification obtained with the 3D digital approach. The integration proposed in this research of traditional archaeological studies, and computer-assisted investigation based on quantitative criteria, identified and defined with 3D measurements and analytical investigations, is adopted as a solution to the biases of a solely qualitative approach. The 3D geometric analysis of the figurines focuses on the objects’ shape and components, mode of manufacture, level of expertise, specialisation or skills of the craftsman and production techniques. The analysis leads to the creation of classes of artefacts which allow archaeologists to formulate hypotheses on the production process, identify a common production (e.g., same hand, same workshop) and establish a relative chronological sequence. 3D reconstruction of the excavation’s area contributes to the virtual re-unification of the assemblage for its holistic study, the relative chronological dating of the figurines and the interpretation of their social and ritual purposes. The results obtained from the selected sample prove the efficacy of the proposed 3D approach and support the expansion of the analysis to the whole assemblage, and possibly initiate quantitative and systematic studies on Cypriot coroplastic production

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp