Robotics as Theoretical Biology Workshop

[Tony Prescott]

(apologies for repeat postings)


FIRST CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

WORKSHOP ON ROBOTICS AS THEORETICAL BIOLOGY
AUGUST 10TH, 2002, EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND.
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~abrg/sab02/index.shtml


PART OF SAB '02:
THE 7TH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR SIMULATION OF 
ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR
AUGUST 4TH-11TH, 2002, EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND.
http://www.isab.org.uk/sab02/



WORKSHOP AIMS
This workshop seeks to bring together researchers in robotics and 
biology who are interested in developing robot models of the 
biological systems underlying animal behavior. The scope of the 
workshop will include:

*  Evaluating current progress in applying robot models to biological questions
*  Identifying areas of biology where robots could make a future contribution
*  Exploring methodological issues
*  Considering how better ties can be forged between the robotics and 
biological
      research communities
*  Providing a forum for exhibiting current research and work in progress



FORMAT OF THE WORKSHOP

This will be a one-day workshop consisting of a mixture of invited 
talks and discussion sessions (see PROGRAM below).

The workshop will include three sessions of invited talks: one on 
invertebrate behavior, one on vertebrate behavior, and one on 
collective behavior. For each session there will be two invited 
speakers, one a distinguished researcher from a (primarily) 
biological background, the other from a robotics background. Each 
invited speaker will be asked to address the question "How can 
robotics contribute to theoretical biology?" from the perspective of 
their own field and drawing on the experience of their own research. 
Each session will also conclude with a discussion involving the two 
speakers and a panel of other prominent researchers in the field. The 
workshop will end with a discussion about building stronger ties 
between the biological and robotics research communities. 
Representatives from funding bodies and from journal editorial boards 
will be asked to join the panel for this discussion.

All attendees at the workshop are invited to BRING POSTERS DESCRIBING 
THEIR OWN RESEARCH for people to browse during scheduled coffee and 
lunch breaks (see CONTRIBUTING TO THE WORKSHOP below).



WORKSHOP ORGANISERS
The workshop is co-organised by:
Tony Prescott, Adaptive Behaviour Research Group, University of Sheffield, UK,
Barbara Webb, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, UK.



WORKSHOP PROGRAM

Session I: Invertebrate behavior
Chair: Barbara Webb
Talk 1: Roy Ritzmann (Professor of Biology, Case Western Reserve 
University, US)
Talk 2: Roger Quinn (Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Case 
Western Reserve University, US)
Discussion (Panel to be confirmed)

Session II: Vertebrate behavior
Chair: Tony Prescott
Talk 3: Peter Redgrave (Professor of Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, UK)
Talk 4: Angelo Arleo (Research Fellow, College de France, Paris, France)
Discussion (Panel to be confirmed)

Session III: Collective behavior
Chair: To be confirmed.
Talk 5: Nigel Franks (Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol).
Talk 6: Chris Melhuish (Director of the Intelligent Autonomous 
Systems Laboratory, University of the West of England, UK)
Discussion (Panel to be confirmed)

Session IV: Building ties between robotics and biology
Chair: To be confirmed
Discussion (Panel to be confirmed but to include representatives from 
research funding bodies, research societies, and journal editorial 
boards)



CONTRIBUTING TO THE WORKSHOP

All attendees are invited (but not required) to bring posters, and 
robot demos, of relevant research to the workshop. Posters may have 
been previously exhibited at other recent workshops/conferences 
(including SAB '02), or may describe new research that has not been 
exhibited elsewhere.

If you wish to show your work you are requested to SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT 
OF 200-400 WORDS to the workshop organisers before the 1ST OF MAY 
2002. Submissions will not be reviewed however they will be vetted 
for relevance, and work that falls outside the scope of the workshop 
may be refused. Potential contributors should note that the focus of 
the workshop is on the possible contribution of robotics to biology, 
rather than the converse (the contribution of biology to robotics). 
Posters describing biologically-inspired robots, computer simulation 
work, or straight biological research are acceptable where they can 
be shown to have relevance to the understanding or development of 
future robot models in biology. Please make the biological relevance 
clear in your abstract.

Attendees who wish to exhibit robots should also submit an abstract 
and should contact the organizers with full details of the 
demonstration and any technical requirements.

There may be a limit on the number of available poster spaces, and 
there may also be space restrictions on robot demonstrations. If 
these limits become an issue then contributions will be prioritized 
according to the order in which they were received.

Please note, we are NOT inviting submissions for oral presentations, 
however, the program is organized to include discussion sessions 
which will certainly be open to input from all attendees.

For enquiries and for ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS please email:
t.j.prescott at shef.ac.uk including "SAB '02" in the subject line.



PROCEEDINGS
There will be a proceedings booklet for attendees that will include 
the abstracts of invited talks and accepted posters/demos, contact 
details for all attendees, and other pertinent information. Attendees 
with accepted abstracts will be asked to contribute 1 page of 
'camera-ready' material to the proceedings (formatting instructions 
to be published here at a later date).



BOOKING INFORMATION
Please book through the SAB 'O2 web-site (http://www.isab.org.uk/sab02/).
Booking information should be available there soon.
Note, it should be possible to register for the workshop without 
registering for the full conference.



FOR MORE INFORMATION
Please visit the workshop home-page: 
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~abrg/sab02/index.shtml.