Theories on embodied cognition emphasize that our mind develops by processing and inferring structures given the encountered bodily experiences. Here, we propose a distributed neural network architecture that learns a stochastic generative model from experiencing bodily actions. Our modular system learns from various manifolds of action perceptions in the form of (i) relative positional motion ...

This work examines force modeling and softwarebased commutation for closed-loop control of planar linear motors, motivated by the need for a robust and versatile planar robot for precision assembly. The approach taken is to make measurements of the static and dynamic force capabilities of the motor as directly as possible, and determine the applicability of simple models commonly used. Measurem...

Haptics can be defined as the characterization and identification of objects by voluntary exploration and somatosensory feedback. It requires multimodal sensing, motor dexterity, and high levels of cognitive integration with prior experience and fundamental concepts of self versus external world. Humans have unique haptic capabilities that enable tool use. Experimental animals have much poorer ...

Gossip-based protocols are now acknowledged as a sound basis to implement collaborative high-bandwidth content dissemination: content location is disseminated through gossip, the actual contents being subsequently pulled. In this paper, we present HEAP, HEterogeneity-Aware Gossip Protocol, where nodes dynamically adjust their contribution to gossip dissemination according to their capabilities....

Humans routinely perform multiple tasks simultaneously. Understanding the capabilities and limits of human multitasking not only helps design efficient devices to enhance human performance, but also helps uncover the nature of human cognition. Research on multitasking is difficult because multitasking performance is inevitably influenced by many factors such as a person’s perceptual, cognitive ...

Driving is one of the most complex tasks that people perform on a regular basis. Driving places major demands on human perceptual, cognitive, and motor capabilities and so age-related declines in these capabilities negatively affect driving performance. Given that driving largely involves the processing of visual information that changes rapidly over time, agerelated changes in dynamic visual a...

The importance of incorporating the user's response capabilities into the design of user interfaces is now well established. Many experiments that measure basic user responses have concentrated on motor capabilities, such as Fitts's law [I]. The user's perceptual abilities, as they apply to the organization and interrelating of displayed information, are another important design factor. This pa...

OBJECTIVE To describe development of mobility and self-care capabilities in young children (aged 1-4 years) with cerebral palsy, and to examine whether the development of mobility and self-care capabilities differs by cerebral palsy severity in terms of 5 distinct Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels. STUDY DESIGN This prospective longitudinal cohort study included 100 ch...

This work examines force modeling and software-based commutation for closed-loop control of planar linear motors, motivated by the need for a robust and versatile planar robot for precision assembly. The approach taken is to make measurements of the static and dynamic force capabilities of the motor as directly as possible, and determine the applicability of simple models commonly used. Measure...

We present the design and development of a plant-inspired robot, named Plantoid, with sensorized robotic roots. Natural roots have a multi-sensing capability and show a soft bending behaviour to follow or escape from various environmental parameters (i.e., tropisms). Analogously, we implement soft bending capabilities in our robotic roots by designing and integrating soft spring-based actuation...