Convergent Science Network’s Anna Mura and Team Win Best Exhibit at This Year’s FET11 Conference in Budapest, Hungary
Diagram of neuroprosthetic implant containing the cerebellar chip, electrodes and power cords
The exhibit featured demonstrations which displayed the potential of biomimetic systems to transform the way information and communication technologies are developed and applied in today’s world. It showcased RENACHIP: a cerebellar chip which could be implemented as a feasible solution for the recovery of a lost learning function.
Aside from this revolutionary neuroprosthetic, the display also included: a biomimetic chemical sensing robot, a wearable device that allows exploration of complex brain data and the biomimetic robot icub pictured to the right with the Neelie Kroes, one of the Vice Presidents of the European Commission.
Check out this video featuring ¨Walking Moth¨, a chemical sensing robot
Read on to find out about and SEE some of the other amazing exhibits at FET11
The natural interactive walking project allows users to have a virtual walking experience by enabling them to perceive sensory and auditory stimuli through the use of special headphones and shoes. Floor based interfaces and haptic and acoustic sensing and actuation devices in floor tiles and soles of shoes allow the user to trek through a sandy desert or the walk across the frozen ground of the North Pole without leaving the room.
The octopus peaks an engineer’s interest for several reasons: It can bend in many directions with unlimited degrees of freedom and control the stiffness of its body, all without a rigid structure. It’s also a highly intelligent invertebrate which exhibits astounding motor capabilities. During the exhibit of the octopus project, viewers were free to operate this robotic octopus which aims to help us gain greater understanding of the fundamentals of embodied intelligence and to explore the applications of those principles in biomimetic and soft-robotic technologies.
- ECCEROBOT is a new kind of robot with a unique appearance. This robot looks like a life-size human … on the inside! Its bones, muscles, and tendons are all exposed so they can be seen in motion. The ECCEROBOT project aims to break away from standard humanoid robots whose inner mechanisms are vastly different from human ones. By endowing this robot with mechanisms akin to ours, it overcomes some of the limitations on the kinds of interactions robots normally engage in.
What do a Norwegian rat and an Estruscan shrew have in common? They’re both ¨tactile specialists¨, capable of using their whiskers to gain richly detailed information about their surroundings. These species are also capable of using tactile information to problem-solve, track prey, and encode memories allowing them to recognize familiar objects. TheScratchbothas many hundreds of whisker-like sensing elements and just like these animals it too can seek-out, identify, and track fast-moving target objects in an autonomous way.
