Humanlike robots as the ultimate challenge
to mimicking biology in a synthetic form
Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Senior Research Scientist and Group Supervisor, JPL
Nature is effectively a giant laboratory where trial and error experiments are taking place thru evolution. The successful results are self-maintained and continually evolved to address the changing challenges. For its experiments, nature is using principles of physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, materials science, and many other fields of science and engineering. Nature inventions inspired human achievements in developing effective methods, materials, processes, algorithms, mechanisms, tools, structures, and systems. The field of technology that is based on inspirations of nature is known as Biomimetics and it offers enormous potential for many exciting future capabilities. There are numerous examples of biomimetic successes including making simple copies, as the fins for swimming, the camera, as well as flying that was inspired by nature. Commercial implementations of biomimetics are increasingly appearing and behaving lifelike and many applications are emerging that are important to our daily life. Making humanlike robots is the ultimate challenge to biomimetics and, for many years, it was considered science fiction, but such robots are increasingly becoming an engineering reality. In this lecture, the state-of-the-art of humanlike robots, potential applications and challenges will be reviewed.
About our speaker:
Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen is a Senior Research Scientist and Supervisor of the Advanced Technologies Group at JPL. He received his Ph.D. in Physics (1979) from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. His research is focused on electro-mechanics including planetary sample handling mechanisms, novel actuators that are driven by such materials as piezoelectric and EAP (also known as artificial muscles) and biomimetics. In his NDEAA lab (http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/), he led the development of many novel methods and mechanisms. In the materials called composites, he discovered the ultrasonic wave phenomena polar backscattering (1979) and leaky lamb waves (1983). He co-edited and co-authored 8 books, co-authored over 360 publications, made numerous presentations at national and international conferences, co-chaired 44 conferences, and has 22 registered patents. Dr. Bar-Cohen challenged engineers and scientists worldwide to develop a robotic arm driven by artificial muscles to wrestle with humans and win. He organized the first contest in 2005. For his contributions to the field of artificial muscles, Business Week named him in April 2003 one of five technology gurus who are “Pushing Tech's Boundaries.” His accomplishments earned him two NASA Honor Award Medals, two SPIE’s Lifetime Achievement Awards, the SPIE’s President’s Award and many other honors and awards.
The evening will also have a special tribute to honor the memory of Don Wolpert
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Reception: 6:00; Dinner: 7:00; Talk: 8:00
Meal $30:00 (Students FREE)
562-985-4090
Top of the escalator in the University Dining Plaza
Parking: If arriving before 6pm, park in Lot 1 or Parking Structure 1. If arriving after 6pm, park in Lot 3 or Lot 4.
Please Register by Monday, Oct 7, 2013