Evolutionary robotics is a new technique for the automatic creation of autonomous robots. Inspired by the Darwinian principle of selective reproduction of the fittest, it views robots as autonomous artificial organisms that develop their own skills in close interaction with the environment and without human intervention. Drawing heavily on...

PHP is a server-side scripting language used to create Web applications. XML is a markup language used to exchange data among Web applications. PHP can be...

LEGO has been a part of my life since I was about four years old. My first sets were basic LEGO SYSTEM sets. However, I soon lumped to the early TECHNIC sets that were beginning to appear on the market. Because I was one of those kids who had to take everything apart to figure out how it worked, TECHNIC seemed like a good fit for me....

Learning to perform complex action strategies is an important problem in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning. Filled with interesting new experimental results, Learning in Embedded Systems explores algorithms that learn efficiently from trial-and error experience with an external world. It is the first...

This thesis proposes an effective methodology for enhancing the perceptual capabilities and achieving interaction control of the iCub humanoid robot. The method is based on the integration of measurements from different sensors (force/torque, inertial and tactile sensors) distributed along the robot’s kinematic chain. Humanoid robots...

It has become clear to researchers in robotics and adaptive behaviour that current approaches are yielding systems with limited autonomy and capacity for self-improvement. To learn autonomously and in a cumulative fashion is one of the hallmarks of intelligence, and we know that higher mammals engage in exploratory activities that are not...