By: study association USCKI Incognito
On Friday, June 14th, study association USCKI Incognito held their annual symposium in Utrecht. The symposium was titled Robotalks, Various Aspects of Embodied AI. This title covered the subject of the symposium quite well. Several researchers in the field of robotics told about how artificial intelligence is applied in their work. After a small delay, due to the coffee and tea being delivered too late, the symposium started. The role of chairman was fulfilled by a Nao Robot, which we borrowed from the Robotics Lab of the Technical University of Eindhoven. This robot announced the lectures and breaks.
The first lecturer was Dr. Ir. Erik Schuitema. He told about his graduation project, in which he taught a robot named Leo to walk using reinforcement learning. He also explained extensively how reinforcement learning works, which problems were encountered using this technique for robotics purposes, and he showed some examples.
The second person to give a lecture was Prof. Dr. Mark Neerincx. He told us about different projects in which TNO is involved. After that, he referred in detail to the European ALIZ-E project. In this project, robots are used to help children with a chronic disease. The robot helps children learn to cope with their disease. To achieve the best results, the robot adapts its behavior to the personality and level of the child.
After lunch, Bas Haring told about his relation with robots. Until recently he hadn’t thought that he was being influenced by the robots he’d encountered in his life, but during a lecture on economics, he figured that his vision upon mankind arose from his experiences with robots. As Bas Haring was a student of artificial intelligence at Utrecht University, his lecture invited a lively discussion. Using extracts from his books, Bas Haring told us how robots influence his life.
The day’s chairman usually resides in the Robotics lab at the Technical university of Eindhoven, where Emilia Barakova and Min-Gyu Kim are researching the use of robots with autistic children. Emilia Barakova was not able to attend the symposium, but she had arranged for Min-Gyu Kim to deliver her presentation. After finishing Emilia’s presentation, Min-Gyu Kim went on to tell us about his own research in Japan, where he taught a robot to play poker.
The day’s second last speaker, Dr. Gert-Jan Lokhorst, could not attend our symposium due to illness, so our last speaker, Dr. Leo Pape, started a little early. Leo Pape told us about his work on the European research project IM-CLeVeR, which aims to have robots learn through some sort of intrinsic motivation called artificial curiosity. Different videos were used to illustrate the project’s results.
The talks were followed by drinks where all attendees were invited to share their opinions and ask questions. Afterward a diner for the day’s speakers took place.
