Event
PRG Seminar Series on Robotics and Computer Vision---Two special talks
Thursday, December 8, 2022
10:30 a.m.
4105 Iribe Building
http://prg.cs.umd.edu/fall2022talk5
Growing theoretical and experimental research on action and language processing and on number learning and gestures clearly demonstrates the role of embodiment in cognition and language processing. In psychology and neuroscience, this evidence constitutes the basis of embodied cognition, also known as grounded cognition (Pezzulo et al. 2012). In robotics and AI, these studies have important implications for the design of linguistic capabilities in cognitive agents and robots for human-robot collaboration and have led to the new interdisciplinary approach of Developmental Robotics, as part of the wider Cognitive Robotics field (Cangelosi & Schlesinger 2015; Cangelosi & Asada 2022). During the talk, we will present examples of developmental robotics models and experimental results from iCub experiments on the embodiment biases in early word acquisition and grammar learning (Morse et al. 2015; Morse & Cangelosi 2017) and experiments on pointing gestures and finger counting for number learning (De La Cruz et al. 2014). We will then present a novel developmental robotics model, and experiments, on Theory of Mind and its use for autonomous trust behavior in robots (Vinanzi et al. 2019, 2021). The implications for the use of such embodied approaches for embodied cognition in AI and cognitive sciences, and for robot companion applications will also be discussed.
Alessandro Di Nuovo is a Full Professor of Machine Intelligence at Sheffield Hallam University. He received the Laurea (MSc Eng) and the Ph.D. in Informatics Engineering from the University of Catania, Italy, in 2005 and 2009, respectively. At Present, Prof. Di Nuovo is the leader of Technological and Digital Innovation for promoting independent lives at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre. He is also the leader of the Smart Interactive Technologies research laboratory of the Department of Computing. He is a member of the Executive Group of Sheffield Robotics, an internationally recognized initiative of two Sheffield Universities to support innovative and responsible research in robotics. Prof. Di Nuovo has a track record of externally funded interdisciplinary research and innovation in AI and robotics; he has led several large collaborative research projects funded by the European Union, UK Research Councils, charities and large industries. His current project includes the MSCA ETN PERSEO on Personalized Robotics as Service-Oriented Applications (2021-2024) and the EPSRC NetworkPlus EMERGENCE: Facilitating the Emergence of Healthcare Robots from Labs into Service (2022-2025). He has published over 120 articles in computational intelligence and its application to cognitive modeling, human-robot interaction, computer-aided assessment of intellectual disabilities, and embedded computer systems. Currently, Prof. Di Nuovo is editor-in-chief (topics AI in Robotics; Human-Robot/Machine Interaction) of the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems (SAGE). He is also serving as Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine.