UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
		 COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

			      presents

	     "The Assembly, Tuning, and Transfer of Action
		   Systems in Infants and Robots"

			  Dr. Luc Berthouze
	      (Informatics Dept, University of Sussex)


		      25th April 2007 (Wednesday)

			  Lecture Theatre E350
		       Hatfield, College Lane Campus
			       3 - 4 pm

	       Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.
			  [Catering Permitting]

		    Everyone is Welcome to Attend
			  [Space Permitting]



Abstract:

Can experiments with machines inform theory in infant motor
development? I will present a number of studies in which we question
(1) how the interactions among the parts of a system, including the
nervous and musculoskeletal systems and the forces acting on the body,
induce organizational changes in the whole, and (2) how exploratory
behavior and selective informational signals at the time scale of skill
learning may allow behavior to become stabilized at the longer time
scale of development.  I will describe how three generative principles,
inspired from developmental biology and shown to underlie the dynamics
of infants learning to bounce in a Jolly Jumper, were broken into a set
of mechanisms suitable for controlling a robotic system and resulted in
a similar developmental profile.

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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq