The IEEE Gainesville Section presents

"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 (Engineering Building #33, Center Drive, University of
Florida)

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.

Contact: J. Harris, harris@cnel.ufl.edu