Look Who it Was Random video

How babies can inspire us to build intelligent robot | Alex Pitti | TEDxArts&EtMétiersParisTechLille

1,525 views · Published 13 April 2016 · 20:19 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: TEDx Talks · 2016 · Nonprofits & Activism

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In this video, I bring forth the role played by the body to shape Intelligence in robots. Infants present striking innate intelligent behaviors at birth by mimicking others, recognizing faces, developing self-awareness of their own body and understanding causal relationships.
These behaviors may be explained by the multi-modal integration done in the brain with so-called associative 'Mirror Neurons'. I present experiments with robots endowed with artificial skin and artificial neural networks that replicate mirror neurons by binding visuo, tactile, audio and motor signals, showing how 'intelligent' behaviors can be explained and developed into robots.

Alex Pitti is associate professor at the ETIS lab in the Neurocybernetic team of Cergy-Pontoise University, CNRS UMR 8051, ENSEA, France. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo with prof. Yasuo Kuniyoshi in 2007 and joined the ERATO project on Synergistic Intelligence leaded by prof. Minoru Asada (Osaka university) as JST researcher. Since 2011, he hold a chair of excellence from the CNRS/UCP on Cognitive Robotics.

His research includes embodied Artificial Intelligence, neural networks, bio-inspired and developmental robotics. He is the author with Rolf Pfeifer of the book 'La révolution de l'Intelligence du corps' (in french, 2012) on design principles for intelligent systems showing how "the body shapes the mind".

Book 'La Révolution de l'Intelligence du Corps': http://www.manuella-editions.fr/livre/la-revolution-de-lintelligence-du-corps.html

NeurocyberneticsTeam@ETIS homepage: http://www.etis.ensea.fr/neurocyber/web/en/index.php


This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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