Robotic platforms and experiments

To reach the challenging objectives of the SPARK project the research pathway followed different levels of abstraction: mathematical models, insect behavior study and bio-inspired solutions for robotics. We investigated biological principles as a source of inspiration and we finally applied the mechanisms provided by the complex dynamical system theory to realize mathematical models for cognitive systems. All these aspects deeply investigated in previous Chapters, are here applied to solve specific tasks. A series of wheeled and legged robots are described and applied as test beds for the proposed action-oriented perception algorithms. The cognitive architecture has been experimentally tested at multiple levels of complexity in different robots. Details on the robotic platforms are given together with a description of the experimental results that include multimedia materials collected in the project web page. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009.