Biorobotic Experiments for the Discovery of Biological Mechanisms

Bibliographic Data

ID10706093
AuthorsEdoardo Datteri (0000-0003-0323-2985), Guglielmo Tamburrini (0000-0001-7118-6541)
Year2007
Volume74
Issue3
Pages409-430
Publication date2007-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophy of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8248 • E-ISSN: 1539-767X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1086/522095
OpenAlexW1550340584
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited21

Robots are being extensively used for the purpose of discovering and testing empirical hypotheses about biological sensorimotor mechanisms. We examine here methodological problems that have to be addressed in order to design and perform “good” experiments with these machine models. These problems notably concern the mapping of biological mechanism descriptions into robotic mechanism descriptions; the distinction between theoretically unconstrained “implementation details” and robotic features that carry a modeling weight; the role of preliminary calibration experiments; the monitoring of experimental environments for disturbing factors that affect both modeling features and theoretically unconstrained implementation details of robots. Various assumptions that are gradually introduced in the process of setting up and performing these robotic experiments become integral parts of the background hypotheses that are needed to bring experimental observations to bear on biological mechanism descriptions

Epistemology · Human–computer interaction · Machine learning · Mechanism (biology) · Process (computing) · Programming language · Robot · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Gene Regulatory Network Analysis · Neural dynamics and brain function · Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub