Plenary Talk 1: Bionic systems: Basic research and recent results in neurorobotics in the human brain project

Abstract

Neurorobotics is an emerging science that studies the interaction of brain, body, and environment in closed perception-action loops where a robot's actions affect its future sensory input. At the core of this field are robots controlled by simulated nervous systems that model the structure and function of biological brains at varying levels of detail. In a typical neurorobotics experiment, a robot or agent will perceive its current environment through a set of sensors that transmit their signals to a simulated brain. The brain model may then produce signals that will cause the robot to move, thereby changing the agent's perception of the environment. Observing how the robot then interacts with its environment and how the robot's actions influence its future sensory input allows scientists to study how brain and body have to work together to produce the appropriate response to a given stimulus. Neurorobotics is a strategic pillar of the Human Brain Project HBP, one of Europe's biggest research projects in the area of ICT. The aim of this pillar is two-fold: (i) to provide roboticists with the methods and tools to build robots with brain-derived controllers and (ii) to provide neuroscientists with brain-controlled robots that they can use for their experiments. Thus, neurorobotics links robotics and neuroscience, enabling a seamless exchange of knowledge between these two disciplines. The HBP is currently building the neurorobotics platform NRP, which will enable roboticists and neuroscience researchers to perform neurorobotics experiments both in the virtual and - completely synchronously - in the real world. We expect the productivity in brain-derived robotics development to increase exponentially when the NRP reaches full operability. In my talk, I will briefly describe the foundations of the HBP and give a more detailed overview of the NRP, including a short description of its development timeline. I will conclude with the presentation of some preliminary results of the NRP and an outlook on next steps.