This project focuses on developing a methodology to advance a self-organizing computing paradigm in flexible robotics and vision in natural environments. These application domains require systems of tremendous complexity, as also indicated by the fact that a large part of our brains, with a processing capacity orders of magnitude larger than any technical system, is devoted to vision and control of behavior. It is doubtful whether systems of the required complexity can be designed by current computing methodologies. It is proceeded with the realization that radically new design principles will have to be developed, and are seeing this project as part of a broader effort to establish the new computing paradigm Organic Computing (OC). OC aspires to understand and emulate information processing in living systems, a form of information processing that does not seem to follow traditional algorithmic control, but rather mechanisms of evolution, adaptation, goal-oriented self-organization and learning. The study will perform towards this goal by a series of theoretical and experimental studies that will demonstrate the principles of OC and how it can replace traditional programming in classical problems of computer vision and robotic control. On the intellectual side, the project will contribute considerably to robust large-scale intelligent and autonomous systems in the future, and a better scientific understanding of the functional principles that are at the basis of autonomous vision, motor control, and visual-motor coordination, also with a view towards interdisciplinary exchange with the neuroscience. The broader impact will be to profoundly transform the style in which large software systems are developed and to open computer systems to the direct creative influence of the non-technical user. The significance of our particular sample applications will be progress with advanced sensing, perception and actuation systems in unstructured environments, as a basis for HCI systems and also for the emerging field of neuro-prosthetics and rehabilitation engineering as well as robotics and autonomous vehicle control.
