Biologically-Inspired Robotics: Learning from Nature Alfredo Weitzenfeld, Professor of Computer Engineering Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM), Mexico Thursday, February 8, 2007 12:50pm - 1:40pm NEB 202 Abstract: Biology has been an important source of inspiration in creating new technology. In the robotics realm, an extensive number of architectures have taken inspiration from animal behavior. These biorobotic architectures have sought to mimic animal ethology, i.e. behavior described by higher-level brain processes, and to a lesser extent animal neuroethology, i.e. behavior mapped to underlying neural structures. From a neuroscientific perspective, advances in brain theory have provided an ever increasing understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved in aspects such as memory, adaptation and learning. To model such systems we have a developed a multi-level schema and neural networks approach that we now apply to the development of biologically inspired robotic architectures. We expect these advances to help develop new generations of adaptive robotics systems having an increasing impact on real world applications. The work to be presented in this talk overviews a number of biologically-inspired robotic architectures developed by our group. A number of models and corresponding biorobotic architectures are presented describing animal behaviors such as prey acquisition, predator avoidance and exploration, based on studies from praying mantis, frogs and toads, rats and monkeys. Biography: Alfredo Weitzenfeld is a Professor of Computer Engineering in Mexico's Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM) where he directs the BioRobotics (CANNES) and Robotics Laboratories. He is currently on sabbatical at the University of South Florida (USF). He obtained his BS in Electrical Engineering from Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, an MS in Computer Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science both from the University of Southern California (USC) where he later stayed as a Research Assistant Professor. He currently chairs the IEEE-RAS Mexico Robotics Chapter and co-chairs the IEEE-RAS Standing Committee for Chapters and International Activities. He has been recently appointed as an IEEE-RAS Distinguished Lecturer for 2007. He is the founder and current chair for the 2007 Latin American Robotics Symposium (LARS) technically co-sponsored by IEEE-RAS. He directs the Eagle Knights RoboCup soccer team at ITAM, the current Latin American champion for both the small-size and four-legged leagues. He recently founded and directs the USF RoboBulls RoboCup small-size team. He is the main author of The Neural Simulation Language (NSL) and the author of Object Oriented Software Engineering with UML, Java and Internet. He is the main designer of NSL, the Abstract Schema Language (ASL), and the Mobile Internet Robotics system (MIRO). His main research interests are in biorobotics, swarm robotics, multi-robot systems and cognitive robotics.