Mon Jul 17 11:40:14 EDT 2006

Call for Registration: Epigenetic Robotics 2006, 20-22 September 2006, 
Paris, France

Sixth International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics:
Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems
website: http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org 
<http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org/>
contact information: epirob06 at csl.sony.fr <mailto:epirob06 at csl.sony.fr>

Location: Hopital de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN on 
http://www.csl.sony.fr/epirob2006/registration.htm

early registration fees are available until July, 31

Confirmed invited speakers 2006

Karen Adolph (Psychology Dpt, New York University, USA)

Andrew Barto (Computer Science Dpt, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 
USA)

Philippe Rochat (Psychology Dpt, University of Emory, USA)

Gregor Schoener (Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-Universität-Bochum, 
Germany)

Bruno Wicker (Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la Mediterranée, 
France)

Conference Themes

In the past 5 years, the Epigenetic Robotics annual workshop has 
established itself as a unique place where original research combining 
developmental sciences, neuroscience, biology, and cognitive robotics 
and artificial intelligence is being presented.

Epigenetic systems, either natural or artificial, share a prolonged 
developmental process through which varied and complex cognitive and 
perceptual structures emerge as a result of the interaction of an 
embodied system with a physical and social environment.

Epigenetic robotics includes the two-fold goal of understanding 
biological systems by the interdisciplinary integration between social 
and engineering sciences and, simultaneously, that of enabling robots 
and artificial systems to develop skills for any particular environment 
instead of programming them for solving particular goals for the 
environment in which they happen to reside.

Psychological theory and empirical evidence is being used to inform 
epigenetic robotic models, and these models should be used as 
theoretical tools to make experimental predictions in  developmental 
psychology.

This year we particularly encourage research resulting from actual 
interdisciplinary collaboration.

Epigenetic Robotics themes include, but are not limited to:

* The development of: emotion, imitation, synchrony processing, 
intersubjectivity, joint attention, intentionality, non-verbal and 
verbal communication, sensorimotor schemata, shared meaning and symbolic 
reference, social learning, social relationships, social cognition
("mind reading", "theory of mind");
* The scope and limits of maturation, the mechanisms of open-ended 
development;
* The mechanisms of stage formation and stage transitions;
* The epistemological foundations of using robots to study development;
* The role of motivations, emotions, and value systems in development;
* Interaction between innate structure, ongoing developing structure, 
and experience;
* The interplay between embodiment, learning biases and environment;
* The differences between learning and development;
* Algorithms for self-supervision, autonomous exploration, 
representation making, and methods for evolving new representations 
during ontogeny;
* Robots that can undergo morphological changes and how they can be used 
to study the interplay between cognitive and morphological development;

Tutorials

Two tutorials will be organized during the conference

- "Featural processing of auditory and visual inputs for epigenetic robots "
Christian Balkenius & Christopher G. Prince

- "Development of imitation and emotion in human and robots: cross 
fertilization of research"
Organized by Philippe Gaussier and Jacqueline Nadel