This Workshop will interest many connectionists

[Bob Damper]

EPSRC/BBSRC International Workshop 
Biologically-Inspired Robotics:   The Legacy of W.  Grey Walter 
14-16 August 2002, Bristol, UK 
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~rid/wgw02/home.html

Biologically-inspired robots functioning in the real world can provide
valuable physical models of biology, but can also provide a radical
alternative to conventional methods of designing intelligent systems.
The origins and history of this fascinating topic can be traced back
to seminal work in the 1940's and 1950's, much of it taking place in
the United Kingdom.  One of the pioneers of the field was William Grey
Walter, a neurophysiologist and amateur engineer who spent the majority
of his working life in Bristol.  He died in 1977 some time after the
road accident that ultimately ended his life.

A three-day scientific meeting "Biologically-Inspired Robotics:
The Legacy of W. Grey Walter" will will take place at Hewlett-Packard
Laboratories, Bristol in August 2002 sponsored by the UK Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council (under the EPSRC Programme in Adaptive
and Interactive Behaviour of Animal and Computational Systems) and by the
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, with additional
support from Hewlett-Packard.  The workshop will focus on the latest
work in this important area of overlap between biology, engineering and
computing, with keynote talks from internationally-acclaimed practitioners
across the range of disciplines impacting on biologically-inspired
robotics.  The following invited speakers are confirmed:

  Michael Arbib (University of Southern California, Los Angeles) 
  Randall Beer (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland) 
  Valentino Braitenberg (University of Tubingen) 
  Rodney Brooks (MIT, Boston) 
  Gerald Edelman (The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla) 
  Owen Holland (University of Essex) 
  Rolf Pfeifer (University of Zurich) 
  Mandyam Srinivasan (Australian National University, Canberra) 
  Luc Steels (Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Paris) 

Contributed papers (maximum 8 pages) are also invited from scientists
and engineers keen to publicise their recent work at this high-calibre
workshop.  Relevant topics include (but are not limited to):

Biorobotics			Biologically-inspired robot architectures
Artificial life and animats	Artificial perception 
Autonomous robots		Humanoid robots 
Learning and adaptation		Evolutionary robotics 
Hardware for biorobotics	Applications 
Communication and cooperation	Robot-human interaction 
Social and collective behaviour	History of cybernetics 
Embodiment and robotics		The life and work of Grey Walter 
Emergence and interaction	Neuroethology 
Philosophical issues		Biological basis of intelligence 

Papers must be submitted electronically according to instructions on
the Workshop web site (URL above).

The best papers from the workshop will be published in a special,
themed issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society,
the world's longest running scientific journal.  The local organising
committee are keen to encourage the participation of research students,
especially those sponsored by EPSRC and BBSRC.  To this end, there will be
free registration and accommodation for research council students working
a relevant or related area (subject to fairly generous availability)
and a special Student Poster Session is being organised.

Important Dates

  Deadline for contributed papers:		1 May 2002
  Notification of acceptance/rejection:		3 June 2002
  Final submission of revised paper:		1 July 2002
  Workshop:					14-16 August 2002

The workshop has been timed to fit in with SAB'02 in Edinburgh and to make 
attendance at both events maximally convenient.  

Local Organising Committee

  Dave Cliff (Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol) 
  Bob Damper (University of Southampton, Chair) 
  Kerstin Dautenhahn (University of Hertfordshire) 
  Inman Harvey (University of Sussex) 
  Chris Melhuish (University of West of England) 
  Ulrich Nehmzow (University of Essex) 
  Nigel Shadbolt (University of Southampton) 
  Noel Sharkey (University of Sheffield) 
  Barbara Webb (University of Stirling)