Living Machines

Tony Prescott is Professor of Cognitive Robotics at the University of Sheffield, UK, and Director of Sheffield Robotics, a cross-disciplinary research institute with over one hundred and fifty researchers (sheffieldrobotics.ac.uk). His background mixes psychology, neuroethology, and brain theory with robotics and artificial intelligence, and his research aims at answering questions about human nature by creating synthetic entities with capacities such as perception, memory, emotion, and sense of self. He is the co-creator of the mammal-like robots Scratchbot and Shrewbot, and is the co-founder of the UK company Consequential Robotics (consequentialrobotics.com ) that is developing assistive and companion robots including the animal-like robot 'pet' MiRo. He co-founded the International Living Machines conference series and also writes and speaks on societal and ethical issues in technology and the brain sciences.

Nathan Lepora is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering Mathematicss at the University of Bristol, UK, and leads the Tactile Robotics Theme at Bristol Robotics Laboratory. His research interests span robotics, neuroscience, and biomimetics, focusing on the design of novel 3D-printed dexterous tactile robotic hands and sensors that can intelligently perceive, explore, and manipulate their environment. His team's research is supported by EPSRC and a Leverhulme Leadership Award, has won several international awards in robotics, and is on display in the Science Museum, London. He has authored over 60 academic publications, edited several proceedings, including three Living Machines conference volumes, and also written eight books for children on science and technology.

Paul Verschure is a research professor with the Catalan Institute of Advanced Studies and Director of the Neuroengineering program at the Catalan Institute for Bioengineering. Paul trained in Psychology and his scientific aim is to find a unified theory of mind and brain using synthetic methods and to apply it to quality of life enhancing technologies. He has advanced a theory of mind and brain, Distributed Adaptive Control, which has led to a novel neurorehabilitation approach called the Rehabilitation Gaming System (eodyne.com). He also explores new methods for the exploration of complex data (brainx3.com) that is being tested on data from the human brain. Complementary to his science, Paul has developed and deployed over 25 art installations (specs.upf.edu/installations) from interactive spaces to BCI orchestras, robot Theremin soloists and virtual/augmented reality installations and tools for the holocaust memorial sites (futurememoryfoundation.org).

Contemporary research in science and engineering is seeking to harness the versatility and sustainability of living organisms. By exploiting natural principles, researchers hope to create new kinds of technology that are self-repairing, adaptable, and robust, and to invent a new class of machines that are perceptive, social, emotional, perhaps even conscious. This is the realm of the 'living machine'.
Living machines can be divided into two types: biomimetic systems, that harness the principles discovered in nature and embody them in new artifacts, and biohybrid systems in which biological entities are coupled with synthetic ones.

Living Machines: A handbook of research in biomimetic and biohybrid systems surveys this flourishing area of research, capturing the current state of play and pointing to the opportunities ahead. Promising areas in biomimetics include self-organization, biologically inspired active materials, self-assembly and self-repair, learning, memory, control architectures and self-regulation, locomotion in air, on land or in water, perception, cognition, control, and communication. Drawing on these advances the potential of biomimetics is revealed in devices that can harvest energy, grow or reproduce, and in animal-like robots that range from synthetic slime molds, to artificial fish, to humanoids.
Biohybrid systems is a relatively new field, with exciting and largely unknown potential, but one that is likely to shape the future of humanity. This book surveys progress towards new kinds of biohybrid such as robots that merge electronic neurons with biological tissue, micro-scale machines made from living cells, prosthetic limbs with a sense of touch, and brain-machine interfaces that allow robotic devices to be controlled by human thought.

The handbook concludes by exploring some of the impacts that living machine technologies could have on both society and the individual, exploring questions about how we will see and understand ourselves in a world in which the line between the natural and the artificial is increasingly blurred.

With contributions from leading researchers from science, engineering, and the humanities, this handbook will be of broad interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Researchers in the areas of computational modeling and engineering, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, artificial life, biorobotics, neurorobotics, and human-machine interfaces will find Living Machines an invaluable resource.

Winner of the BMA Basic & Clinical Sciences Book Award 2019Contemporary research in the field of robotics attempts to harness the versatility and sustainability of living organisms with the hope of rendering a renewable, adaptable, and robust class of technology that can facilitate self-repairing, social, and moral--even conscious--machines. This landmark volume surveys this flourishing area of research.

Winner of the BMA Basic & Clinical Sciences Book Award 2019