International Conference on Morphological Computation

International Conference on  “Morphological Computation” took place in March 26-27-28, 2007. The conference was organized by Rolf Pfeifer, University of Zurich, Switzerland and Norman Packard, Protolife, Venice, and was held at Ca’ Minich, Venice.


March 26-28, 2007 

European Center of Living Technology (ECLT), Venice Italy. 

 

MARCH 26 

 

0800: Breakfast 

 0830-0900: Registration 

 

Session 26-1:  

Session Chair: Norman Packard 


0900 – 0945: Invited Talk: Rolf Pfeifer 

Morphological Computation: Basic Concepts 


0945 – 1030: Invited Talk: Takashi Ikegami 

Autonomy and Dynamic Homeostasis 

 

1035-1115: Coffee Break 

 

Session 26-2:  


Session Chair: Mark Bedau 


1115 – 1200: Invited Talk: John Reif 

Autonomous Programmable Biomolecular Devices Using Self-Assembled DNA Nanostructures 


1200 – 1225: Preliminary Steps toward Artificial Protocell Computation 

Barry McMullin Ciaran Kelly Darragh O’Brien George G. Mitchell James Decraene 

1225 – 1250: Defining the Blob Primitives on Amorphous Computers 

Moıse Valvassori, Arab Ali Cherif  

 

1250-1400: Lunch Break 

 

Session 26-3:  

Session Chair: Fumiya Iida 


1400 – 1445: Invited Talk: Satoshi Murata 

Models of Self-Replication  


1445 – 1510: Organization of Information Flows in the Perception-Action Loop 

Daniel Polani 


1510 – 1535: Real-time Requirements and Restricted Resources: The Role of the 

Computing Substrate in Robots 

Soichiro Tsuda, Klaus-Peter Zauner, and Yukio-Pegio Gunji 

 

1535-1615: Coffee Break 

 

 

 

Session 26-4:  

Session Chair: John Reif 


1615 – 1700: Invited Talk: John McCaskill 

Evolving Self-Assembling Molecular Recognition Systems  


1700 – 1725:  

Mark Bedau and Norman Packard 

 

1830 - 1930: Reception & Panel Discussion (Moderator: Rolf Pfeifer) 

 

 

 

MARCH 27 

 

0800: Breakfast 

 

Session 27-1:  

Session Chair: Rolf Pfeifer 


0900 – 0945: Invited Talk: Jun Tani 

Toward "Organic Compositionality": Dynamical Systems Accounts for Cognitive Behaviors 

 

0945 – 1030: Invited Talk: Eric Winfree 

In vitro synthetic biology: from self-assembly to biochemical circuits 

 

1030-1115: Coffee Break 

 

Session 27-2:  

Session Chair: Jun Tani 


1115 – 1200: Invited Talk: Akio Ishiguro 

A Modular Robot That Exhibits Amoeboid Locomotion, Self-assembly, and Self-repair 


1200 – 1225: Locomotion of a Tensegrity Robot via Dynamically Coupled Modules 

John Rieffel, Ryan James Stuk, Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas and Hod Lipson 


1225 – 1250: On Passive Adaptive Mechanism in Passive Dynamic Walking 

Koichi Osuka, Masastugu Iribe and Yasuhiro Sugimoto 

 

1250-1400: Lunch Break 

 

Session 27-3:  

Session Chair: Akio Ishiguro 


1400 – 1445: Invited Talk: Rob Shaw 

Geometrical constraints, leaky membranes, and the limits of logic 


1445 – 1510: Morphological Computation in Behavior Control 

Fumiya Iida  

1510 – 1535: A quantification of the morphological computations in perception systems 

Torbjörn Lundh  

 

1535-1615: Coffee Break 

 

 

 

Session 27-4:  

Session Chair: Rob Shaw 


1615 – 1700: Invited Talk: Thomas Knight 

 

1700 – 1800: Poster Session 

 

1830: Social Event 

 

 

 

MARCH 28 

 

0800: Breakfast 

 

Session 28-1:  

Session Chair: Takashi Ikegami 


0900 – 0945: Invited Talk: Rodney Douglas 

The Design of Self-Constructing and -Repairing Artificial Organismo

 

0945 – 1010: Evolving Self-Assembling Digital Circuitry: Towards Realistic Models 

Rudolf M. Füchslin, Thomas Maeke, and John S. McCaskill 


1010 – 1035: Membrane as an Interface in a Simple Metabolic Cell 

Keisuke Suzuki and Takashi Ikegami 

 

1035-1100: Coffee Break 

 

Session 28-2:  

 

1100 – 1230: Final Discussion 

Moderator: Norman Packard  

 

1230- Lunch 

 

Posters Presentations 

 

 

Tribolon - Water Floating Self-Assembling Units 

Shuhei Miyashita, Maik Hadorn and Peter Eggenberger Hotz 

 

A Formula for Network Energy that is Minimized from Random to Small-world 

Hideaki Suzuki 

 

Discovering a Running Locomotion Strategy through Body and Neural Dynamics 

Simon Bovet, Fumiya Iida 

 

Robotic Self-Assembly and Self-Repair 

Daniel J. Arbuckle, Aristides A. G. Requicha 

 

Embodiment, structural coupling and morphological computation: let us not stop 

halfway 

Matěj Hoffmann 

 

Towards Crowd-Controlled Evolutionary Design and Lamarckian Evolution of 

Shapes 

Martin Schneider 

 

On the Information Metrics Of Controlled Dynamical Systems 

Fabio P. Bonsignorio 

 

Policy Selection Based on Robot’s Embodiment from Multiple Human Teachings 

 Masato Kotake, Daisuke Katagami, Katsumi Nitta 

 

Virtuality in neural dynamical systems 

 Francesco Donnarumma, Roberto Prevete, Giuseppe Trautteur 

 

A Functional Model of Development and Expression in an Artificial Organism 

 Alessandro Fontana 

 

Defining the Blob Primitives on Amorphous Computers 

 Moıse Valvassori, Arab Ali Cherif 

 

The Lagging Legs: Exploiting Body Dynamics to Steer a Quadrupedal Agent 

 Mike Rinderknecht, Jonas Ruesch and Maik Hadorn 

 

Experience in the Real World for Incremental Individual Recognition 

 Lijin Aryananda 

 

On the Robustness of Simple Speed Control for a Quadruped Robot 

 Alexander Schmitz, Gabriel Gomez, Fumiya Iida and Rolf Pfeifer