Wintersemester 2002/2003 :

New Artificial Intelligence

(last update: 14.11.2002)

Prof. Dr. Rolf Pfeifer
Fumiya Iida

Martin Krafft
Gabriel Gomez

New Artificial Intelligence: Donnerstag  14:00 - 16:00 , Irchel 35-F-51

 

 

Contents:

This class is a continuation of the „KV Artificial intelligence“ course. The main goal is to deepen the ideas developed there. This includes going into more detail on the various topics, in particular a more thorough discussion of the “design principles of autonomous agents.” In addition to reading the remainder of the book “Understanding intelligence”, we will broach other topics that have not been sufficiently elaborated, such as scaffolding, social interaction, emergence of language, ontogenetic development, morphology, and humanoid robots. Moreover, we will discuss some philosophical issues related to the “brain in a vat” and “downloading.

Assignments: (Check the latest information of the class!)
Students of the New AI class can use the computer room 27-G-28, it has been reserved for wednesday 27th of november from 2 to 6 pm.

 
Literature:

-Pfeifer, R. & Scheier, C. (1999). Understanding Intelligence. Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press; ISBN: 026266125X; (September 1, 2001)

Paperback edition
Go to "Understanding Intelligence" book homepage

Book Description
By the mid-1980s researchers from artificial intelligence, computer science, brain and cognitive science, and psychology realized that the idea of computers as intelligent machines was inappropriate. The brain does not run "programs"; it does something entirely different. But what? Evolutionary theory says that the brain has evolved not to do mathematical proofs but to control our behavior, to ensure our survival. Researchers now agree that intelligence always manifests itself in behavior-- thus it is behavior that we must understand. An exciting new field has grown around the study of behavior-based intelligence, also known as embodied cognitive science, "new AI," and "behavior-based AI."

This book provides a systematic introduction to this new way of thinking. After discussing concepts and approaches such as subsumption architecture, Braitenberg vehicles, evolutionary robotics, artificial life, self-organization, and learning, the authors derive a set of principles and a coherent framework for the study of naturally and artificially intelligent systems, or autonomous agents. This framework is based on a synthetic methodology whose goal is understanding by designing and building.

The book includes all the background material required to understand the principles underlying intelligence, as well as enough detailed information on intelligent robotics and simulated agents so readers can begin experiments and projects on their own. The reader is guided through a series of case studies that illustrate the design principles of embodied cognitive science.

"People trained in classical AI will find this book an articulate and thought-provoking challenge to much that they have taken for granted. People new to cognitive science will find it a stimulating introduction to one of the field's most productive controversies. Pfeifer and Scheier deserve our thanks for a thorough, assessible, and courteous contribution in the best tradition of scholarly debate."
-- H. Van Dyke, Computing Reviews

 


 
 
 

-Dautenhahn, Kerstin & Nehaniv, Chrystopher L. Imitation in animals and artifacts

MIT Press; ISBN: 0262042037; 1st edition (May 21, 2002)

Book Description
The effort to explain the imitative abilities of humans and other animals draws on fields as diverse as animal behavior, artificial intelligence, computer science, comparative psychology, neuroscience, primatology, and linguistics. This volume represents a first step toward integrating research from those studying imitation in humans and other animals, and those studying imitation through the construction of computer software and robots.

 

 

-Clark, Andy. Being there: Putting brain, body, and world together again

MIT Press; ISBN: 0262531569; Reprint edition (January 9, 1998)

Book Description
"Clark's book is an excellent introduction to this new movement in cognitive science. It is clear, wide ranging, well informed, and full of fascinating examples. And, unusually, it manages to be both eminently sensible and highly provocative." -- Margaret A. Boden, Nature

Brain, body, and world are united in a complex dance of circular causation and extended computational activity. In Being There, Andy Clark weaves these several threads into a pleasing whole and goes on to address foundational questions concerning the new tools and techniques needed to make sense of the emerging sciences of the embodied mind. Clark brings together ideas and techniques from robotics, neuroscience, infant psychology, and artificial intelligence. He addresses a broad range of adaptive behaviors, from cockroach locomotion to the role of linguistic artifacts in higher-level thought.

 

Data for exercises:

Related links:
- Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
- Neuronics   (company producing NNetView simulator and Samurai robot)
- Cyberbotics ( company producing Webots simulator)
- K-team (company producing Khepera robot)

- ALICE (Turing Test machine ALICE)
- ELIZA (Turing Test machine ELIZA)
- Loebner Prize homepage

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Rolf Pfeifer
Fumiya Iida

Martin Krafft
Gabriel Gomez