An introduction to neurorobotics that presents approaches and design
principles for developing intelligent autonomous systems grounded in
biology and neuroscience.
Neurorobotics is an interdisciplinary field that draws on artificial
intelligence, cognitive sciences, computer science, engineering,
psychology, neuroscience, and robotics. Because the brain is closely
coupled to the body and situated in the environment,
neurorobots--autonomous systems modeled after some aspect of the
brain--offer a powerful tool for studying neural function and may also
be a means for developing autonomous systems with intelligence that
rivals that of biological organisms. This textbook introduces approaches
and design principles for developing intelligent autonomous systems
grounded in biology and neuroscience. It is written for anyone
interested in learning about this topic and can be used in cognitive
robotics courses for students in psychology, cognitive science, and
computer science.
Neurorobotics covers the background and foundations of the field, with
information on early neurorobots, relevant principles of neuroscience,
learning rules and mechanisms, and reinforcement learning and
prediction; neurorobot design principles grounded in neuroscience and
principles of neuroscience research; and examples of neurorobots for
navigation, developmental robotics, and social robots, presented with
the cognitive science and neuroscience background that inspired them. A
supplementary website offers videos, robot simulations, and links to
software repositories with neurorobot examples.
