ShanghAI Lectures: Serge Kernbach “Collective and Modular Robotics: Fundamentials and Frontiers”

Guest talk in the ShanghAI Lectures, 2010-12-02

Collective systems play very important role on Earth, and we encounter them in all sizes, scales and forms; in biological and technological areas; in ocean, air and on the ground. Examples include viruses, different colloidal systems, nano- and micro-scale particles, huge world of social insects and animals; collective systems in robotics vary from nano- up to large space exploration robots. To some extent, collective systems are ubiquitous. Such a prevalence and diversity and can be explained by several unique properties: scalability, reliability, flexibility, self-developmental capabilities. This guest lecture introduces the area of collective robotics and answers the questions “what and why”. Special attention is given to reconfigurable robotics, we discuses a big vision of “universal modularity” and several ways of its achieving.

Serge Kernbach is the head of the collective robotics group at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He graduated in electronic engineering and computer science in 1994. During 1996-1998 he received several research grants, in 2007 his doctoral thesis won the faculty-award as the best dissertation of the year. Since 2004 he has been a coordinator of several European research projects on the field of collective robotics. Serge’s main research interest is focused on artificial collective systems, he is the author and co-author of over 100 articles in international journals and conferences, edited a few books related to robotics. Since 2000 he acquired for IPVS more than 3.5 M€ in different research projects.

The ShanghAI Lectures are a videoconference-based lecture series on Embodied Intelligence, run and organized by Rolf Pfeifer (from 2009 till 2012), Fabio Bonsignorio (since 2013), and me with partners around the world. 

The ShanghAI Lectures have brought us a treasure trove of guest lectures by experts in robotics. You can find the whole series from 2012 here. Now, we’re bringing you the guest lectures you haven’t yet seen from previous years, starting with the first lectures from 2009 and releasing a new guest lecture every Thursday until all the series are complete. Enjoy!

Nathan Labhart Co-organizing the ShanghAI Lectures since 2009.

Nathan Labhart Co-organizing the ShanghAI Lectures since 2009.