Robots and Biological Systems: Towards a New Bionics? : Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Workshop on Robots and Biological Systems, Held at II Ciocco, Toscana, Italy, June 26–30, 1989

Bionics evolved in the 1960s as a framework to pursue the development of artificial systems based on the study of biological systems. Numerous disciplines and technologies, including artificial intelligence and learningdevices, information processing, systems architecture and control, perception, sensory mechanisms, and bioenergetics, contributed to bionics research. This volume is based on a NATO Advanced Research Workshop within the Special Programme on Sensory Systems for Robotic Control, held in Il Ciocco, Italy, in June 1989. A consensus emerged at the workshop, and is reflected in the book, on the value of learning from nature in order to derive guidelines for the design of intelligent machines which operate in unstructured environments. The papers in the book are grouped into seven chapters: vision and dynamic systems, hands and tactile perception, locomotion, intelligent motor control, design technologies, interfacing robots to nervous systems, and robot societies and self-organization. Front Matter....Pages I-XII Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Active Perception and Exploratory Robotics....Pages 3-20 Object Identification and Search: Animate Vision Alternatives to Image Interpretation....Pages 21-42 A Model of Human Feature Detection Based on Matched Filters....Pages 43-63 Visualizing and Understanding Patterns of Brain Architecture....Pages 65-87 Dynamic Vision....Pages 89-98 A Model of the Acquisition of Object Representations in Human 3D Visual Recognition....Pages 99-118 Front Matter....Pages 119-119 The Perception of Mechanical Stimuli Through the Skin of the Hand and its Physiological Bases....Pages 121-138 Borrowing Some Ideas From Biological Manipulators to Design an Artificial One....Pages 139-152 Mechanical Design for Whole-Arm Manipulation....Pages 153-164 Whole-Hand Manipulation: Design of an Articulated Hand Exploiting All Its Parts to Increase Dexterity....Pages 165-177 Stable Grasping and Manipulation by a Multifinger Hand with the Capability of Compliance Control....Pages 179-190 Front Matter....Pages 191-191 Mobile Robots - the Lessons From Nature....Pages 193-206 Quadarujped Walking Machine — Creation. of the Model of Motion....Pages 207-222 Biped Locomotion by FNS: Control Issues and an ANN Implementation....Pages 223-238 How Fast Can a Legged Robot Run?....Pages 239-269 Robot Biped Walking Stabilized with Trunk Motion....Pages 271-291 Front Matter....Pages 292-292 A New Concept of the Role of Proprioceptive and Recurrent Inhibitory Feedback in Motor Control....Pages 295-318 Analogic Models for Robot Programming....Pages 319-338 Structural Constraints And Computational Problems in Motor Control....Pages 339-359 Motion Control in Intelligent Machines....Pages 361-394 Front Matter....Pages 292-292 Control of Contact in Robots and Biological Systems....Pages 395-409 Motor Control Simulation Of Time Optimal Fast Movement in Man....Pages 411-418 Constraints on underspecified target trajectories....Pages 419-443 Proposal for a Pattern Matching Task Controller for Sensor-Based Coordination of Robot Motions....Pages 445-455 Sensory-Motor Mapping With A Sequential Network....Pages 457-472 Front Matter....Pages 473-473 Flexible Robot Manipulators and Grippers: Relatives of Elephant Trunks and Squid Tentacles....Pages 475-494 Progress in the Design and Control of Pseudomuscular Linear Actuators....Pages 495-505 Shape Memory Alloy Linear Actuators for Tendon-based Biomorphic Actuating Systems....Pages 507-534 CCD Retina and Neural Net Processor....Pages 535-551 Retina-Like CCD Sensor for Active Vision....Pages 553-570 Designing Artificial Structures from Biological Models....Pages 571-578 Design Strategies For Gas And Odour Sensors Which Mimic The Olfactory System....Pages 579-602 Front Matter....Pages 603-603 Multi-Electrode Stimulation Of Myelinated Nerve Fibers....Pages 605-623 The Role Of Materials In Designing Nerve Guidance Channels And Chronic Neural Interfaces....Pages 625-636 Regeneration-Type Peripheral Nerve Interfaces for Direct Man/Machine Communication....Pages 637-665 Integrated Bioelectronic Transducers....Pages 667-675 Front Matter....Pages 677-677 A Robot Being....Pages 679-702 Swarm Intelligence in Cellular Robotic Systems....Pages 703-712 A Control Architecture for Cooperative Intelligent Robots....Pages 713-744 Cellular Robotics....Pages 745-782 Back Matter....Pages 783-792