Humans and Humanoids

The Research Institute for Cognition and Robotics (CoR-Lab) combines research activities at Bielefeld University in the areas of cognition and intelligent robotics and a strategic cooperation with Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH (HRI-EU). HRI-EU contributes support for PhD students in the CoR-Lab’s graduate school and provides two humanoid robots ASIMO together with the operating software for research projects. Based on this unique scientific partnership, CoR-Lab will strive to answer questions like: What are the basic building blocks of cognition and learning? How can we endow robots with some social competence? How to provide them with motion intelligence to smoothly interact with humans? How can machines communicate naturally on semantic levels with humans? CoR-Lab believes that substantial progress in these fields requires the integration of experience in engineering and computer science, brain science, and cognitive sciences, including the humanities and social sciences and needs to be based on advanced technological platforms like the ASIMO robot.