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Intelligence does not only reside in the brain - the body is uniquely capable of everyday computation that the brain cannot be bothered to do itself. Join our speakers Thrish and Kadri to find out how we use robotics to learn about our body's intelligence and try your luck at making your very own robot!
The brain is lazy
Professor Thrishantha Nanayakkara
(Professor of Robotics, Imperial College London)
The brain does not do everything on its own - whenever possible it gives the body the task. Therefore, a portion of intelligence resides in the body. For example, while you cycle over rough terrain, your brain corrects posture and muscle stiffness, but your bent knee is filtering out the terrain roughness independently. To find out how the brain and body solve problems together we can use robots to test out specific questions. In this talk we will explore how to do it and what have we already learned about embodied intelligence. Thrish's lab members will present some robots afterwards.
Workshop: Building your own body intelligent robot
Kadri-Ann Valdur
(Visiting PhD student at Imperial College London & PhD student at University of Tartu)
Robots are often envisioned as bulky, metallic and with a supercomputer as a brain. And yet, robots struggle with everyday tasks a toddler would find easy. The solution might be in the bodies of living organisms - the intelligence that is written in the very structure of the body. In this workshop you will get a hands-on experience on how a piece of plywood can qualify for all the requirements of a robot and build your own robots with embodied intelligence.
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