Developmental robotics (DevRob), sometimes called epigenetic robotics, is a scientific field which aims at studying the developmental mechanisms, architectures and constraints that allow lifelong and open-ended learning of new skills and new knowledge in embodied machines. As in human children, learning is expected to be cumulative and of progressively increasing complexity, and to result from self-exploration of the world in combination with social interaction. The typical methodological approach consists in starting from theories of human and animal development elaborated in fields such as developmental psychology, neuroscience, developmental and evolutionary biology, and linguistics, then to formalize and implement them in robots, sometimes exploring extensions or variants of them. The experimentation of those models in robots allows researchers to confront them with reality, and as a consequence, developmental robotics also provides feedback and novel hypotheses on theories of human and animal development.
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology is a multi-disciplinary research institute located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1966, it was the first multi-disciplinary scientific research institute in Korea and has contributed significantly to the economic development of the country, particularly during the years of accelerated growth in the 1970s and 1980s. It has a research staff of over 1,800 research scientists, visiting scientists, fellows and trainees, and foreign scientists involved in basic research in various fields of science and technology.
Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza is a private scientific research hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, founded by Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, and administered by Vatican City. Inaugurated on 5 May 1956, the hospital has adopted modern technologies and is often considered as one of the most efficient scientific research hospitals in Europe. The building is situated at the highest part of the town, on the top of the hill, giving the location an identity of a hospital-town. Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza has two major activity wings. One of which is an internationally regarded hospital for the relief of suffering and the other is a state-of-the-art scientific research centre which had received the status of a Scientific Hospitalization and Treatment Institute (IRCCS), an institute of national interest, by the decree of Italian Ministry of Health in 1991. The research centre is also home to the Genomic and Genetic Disorders Biobank which is part of the Telethon Network of Genetic Biobanks and conducts basic and pre-clinical research and clinical trials in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies. It is first in the world to run non-profit clinical trials. The hospital has established Institute for Stem-cell Biology, Regenerative Medicine and Innovative Therapies (ISBReMIT) that will be the first factory of GMP neural stem cells in Europe for producing bio-drugs and cell-drugs. ISBReMIT has a dedicated area for the start-ups and spin-offs in biotechnology. Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza also houses a large out-patient clinic, a hospital-school for the children suffering from cancer and other genetic disorders, a reception centre which is a hotel complex, and a social-assistance residence for elderly. Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza also owns two agricultural companies-Masseria Calderoso and Posta La Via. It also hosts one spiritual centre, prayer group and a church. In front of Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza there is Sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, named after the founder of this hospital and research centre.
Neuroinformatics is the field that combines informatics and neuroscience. Neuroinformatics is related with neuroscience data and information processing by artificial neural networks. There are three main directions where neuroinformatics has to be applied:
The Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research is a research institution based in Lugano, in Canton Ticino in southern Switzerland. It was founded in 1988 by Angelo Dalle Molle through the private Fondation Dalle Molle. In 2000 it became a public research institute, affiliated with the Università della Svizzera italiana and SUPSI in Ticino, Switzerland. In 1997 it was listed among the top ten artificial intelligence laboratories, and among the top four in the field of biologically-inspired AI.
iCub is a 1 metre tall open source robotics humanoid robot testbed for research into human cognition and artificial intelligence.
Luciano Fadiga is a neurophysiologist at the Human Physiology Section of the University of Ferrara and a Senior Researcher at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia of Genoa, Italy.
IIT Research Institute (IITRI), also known historically and interchangeably as IIT Research Center, is a high-technology scientific research organization and applied research laboratory located in Chicago, Illinois. Previously known as the Armour Research Foundation, the IITRI is an independent corporation that operates collaboratively with the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and the U.S. Government.
Indian Institute of Technology Patna is a public research university and technical institute located at Bihta near Patna, Bihar. It is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India. It is one of the new IITs established by an Act of the Indian Parliament on August 6, 2008.
Laura-Ann Petitto is a cognitive neuroscientist and a developmental cognitive neuroscientist known for her research and scientific discoveries involving the language capacity of chimpanzees, the biological bases of language in humans, especially early language acquisition, early reading, and bilingualism, bilingual reading, and the bilingual brain. Significant scientific discoveries include the existence of linguistic babbling on the hands of deaf babies and the equivalent neural processing of signed and spoken languages in the human brain. She is recognized for her contributions to the creation of the new scientific discipline, called educational neuroscience. Petitto chaired a new undergraduate department at Dartmouth College, called "Educational Neuroscience and Human Development" (2002-2007), and was a Co-Principal Investigator in the National Science Foundation and Dartmouth's Science of Learning Center, called the "Center for Cognitive and Educational Neuroscience" (2004-2007). At Gallaudet University (2011–present), Petitto led a team in the creation of the first PhD in Educational Neuroscience program in the United States. Petitto is the Co-Principal Investigator as well as Science Director of the National Science Foundation and Gallaudet University’s Science of Learning Center, called the "Visual Language and Visual Learning Center (VL2)". Petitto is also founder and Scientific Director of the Brain and Language Laboratory for Neuroimaging (“BL2”) at Gallaudet University.
The Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) is a not-for-profit research institute of the State University System of Florida, with locations in Pensacola and Ocala, Florida. IHMC scientists and engineers investigate a broad range of topics related to building systems aimed at amplifying and extending human cognitive, physical and perceptual capacities.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to robotics:
The "Alessandro Faedo" Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell'Informazione is an institute of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). The institute is located in the CNR research area in the Ghezzano Province of Pisa about 5 km from San Giuliano Terme.
ShanghaiTech University is a public research university in Shanghai, China. The university is founded by contracts between the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The university has been added into Chinese state Double First Class University Plan since February 2022.
The GREAT Campus is a science technology park located on the Erzelli hill in Genoa, in northwest Italy. The park is partly under ongoing construction and partly already working. At the moment, it hosts several high tech corporations such as Ericsson, Siemens, and Esaote, in addition to a robotics laboratory of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) and other companies.
Robotics in Italy is a high technology area where Italy hosts numerous research centers.
Michele Rucci is an Italian born neuroscientist and biomedical engineer who studies visual perception. He is a Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and member of the Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester.
Antonio Bicchi is an Italian scientist interested in robotics and intelligent machines. He is professor at the University of Pisa and senior researcher at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa. He is an adjunct professor at the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, US.
Robot Shalu is a homemade, artificially intelligent, multilingual, social and educational humanoid robot, made-up of waste materials, that can speak 47 languages, developed by Dinesh Kunwar Patel, a Kendriya Vidyalaya, Computer Science teacher from Mumbai, India. Shalu is recognized in the top ten humanoid robots of the world by Danik Bhaskar, Vaartha, TopTen magazine, and Hindustan News. Shalu is also among top 5 trending Indian robots in the global Tech Market.
