Model-based intervention in social biorobotics

Abstract. Robots have been often used as models of human and animal behaviour in cognitive science and neuro-ethology. In many cases their role is to simulate a theoretical model of the target living system for explanatory or predictive purposes. In other cases they are used to intervene on the behaviour of the target system: examples can be found in studies on the social behaviour of insects and on cortical mechanisms of plasticity. This role of robots has been only marginally discussed in the epistemological and methodological literature on biorobotics and computer simulation. In this talk I will point out that some robots used for intervening on biological systems simulate biological theoretical models, while others do not. I will also discuss under what conditions model-based, robot-supported interventions can stimulate the target system in an epistemically fruitful way.

Locandina

Center for Logic, Language, and Cognition