Experts to discuss future of robotics

IU psychology Chairwoman Linda Smith kicked off the International Conference on Development and Learning Wednesday morning by welcoming participants -- including representatives from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the MIT Media Lab and Microsoft Research-- to Woodburn Hall. \nThe conference is devoted to asking question in hopes of fostering advanced forms of artificial intelligence. \nSmith said the conference offers a unique opportunity for researchers to immerse themselves in the work of a field that relies upon many different disciplines -- including robotics, neuroscience, computer science and engineering. She added she sees this conference as an opportunity for researchers to realize that different research traditions are growing into one united entity. \nThis linkage can be seen at IU, as 69 graduate students in psychology are obtaining joint Ph.D.s in cognitive science.\n"Although AI systems are really good at some stuff like (older artificial intelligence technology) can play chess, to really move to the next generation of robots the idea is to use what we know," Smith said. "Understanding the role of development will play a role in the next generation of robots." \nThough Smith admitted the big names in this endeavor to create artificial intelligence are in Europe and Japan, they are collaborating with some of the brightest in this still emerging field, including members of the MIT research teams. In addition, she is involved with a project sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a division within the U.S. Department of Defense. \nDARPA, the agency responsible for the beginnings of the Internet, already has experience with such research -- last year it sponsored a competition for unmanned autonomous vehicles. DARPA is also taking an interest in one of the key new directions that AI will increasingly be marked by -- biologically inspired robots. The name of the project Smith and others are working on with DARPA is called Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures. \nThe eventual goal of BICA is to simulate the way humans act and think across different situations through the use of computational modeling, according to a DARPA Web site.\nThis biological direction was a marked theme of early talks Wednesday morning. John Lipinski of the University of Iowa presented research that made him believe that combining linguistic and non-linguistic spatial learning would be valuable in autonomous robots. \nIn his presentation he pointed out that his research could have implications in the vision systems of robots. The research also offers the possibility of robots to learn direction-oriented language to coordinate in their environments. \nBeyond military systems, there are potential benefits in the domains of medicine and business as well.\nOlaf Sporns, IU assistant professor and internationally known roboticist said that developmental disorders greatly disrupt human health. The modeling that is characteristic of such research offers the possibility of better understanding of disorders, like autism, by allowing for manipulations that would not be possible in animals or humans.\n"If it has a reasonably realistic composition we can go in and make lesions (on the robots)," he said. "We can turn (the robot's) systems off over time."\nIn the business world there are many potential applications for this type of research that extends into security and surveillance. Technology like recognition systems are already being employed, Sporns said. Search and rescue missions could be revolutionized by this technology. Sporns added that autonomous robots could withstand adverse conditions that humans would find fatal.\nSporns said other realms that will be touched by this promising field include entertainment and education. Humanoid robots may eventually serve as interactive toys.\nICDL is co-sponsored by IEEE Computational Intelligence Society and will run until June 3.