Artificial Life special issue – call for contributions

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the organisers of the 2021 international workshop on embodied intelligence I am pleased to open this call for contributions for a special issue in the Artificial Life journal.

We invite contributions in the field of embodied intelligence and artificial life. The goal of this special issue is to capture the range of viewpoints presented at the workshop, but the issue is also open to anyone who didn’t attend. The scope of contributions can be quite general, and could include topics such as:

– Self-reconfigurable, self-assembling, self-organising systems
– Emergence of adaptive behaviours in embodied systems (rather than just “emergence”)
– Morphological computation / reservoir computing
– Evolutionary robotics / open-ended evolution
– Philosophy of embodied (artificial) intelligence
– Self-repair, self-healing, self-X materials and robotics
– Morpho-functions and mechanical intelligence in soft robotics
– Bio-inspired robotics and robotics-inspired biology
– Self-reproducing, and creative machines
– Neurorobotics, brain-inspired computation for embodied agents
Key Dates:
Abstract submission deadline: 21 May 2021
Manuscript Deadline: 18 September 2021
Reviews: October/November 2021
Revisions: December 2021
Publication: January 2022

Submission guidelines:
Please follow the guidelines for article submission at: https://direct.mit.edu/artl/pages/submission-guidelinesWe welcome early submissions, and submissions of interest with an abstract by 21st May. 
Please submit your manuscripts directly by email to: th533@cam.ac.uk 

Guest editor team:
Fumiya Iida (U. Cambridge)Toby Howison (U. Cambridge)
Josie Hughes (U. Cambridge)
Josh Bongard (U. Vermont)
Kohei Nakajima (U. Tokyo)

We look forward to your contributions,

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Frontiers special issue – call for contributions

Dear Colleagues,

Prof Fumiya Iida (university of Cambridge), Prof. Kohei Nakajima (The University of Tokyo), Dr Josie Hughes (University of Cambridge), Toby Howison (University of Cambridge), Prof. Josh Bongard (University of Vermont) and myself , are editing a new research topic on Bio-Inspired Embodied Intelligence on “Frontiers in Robotics and AI”( CiteScore of 4.7 and indexed on ESCI (Web of Science)).

We are inviting you to send your abstract (1000 words max) for participating to this special issue. Please visit the homepage for this Research Topic for sending your abstract: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/20603

Key Dates:
Abstract submission deadline: 21 May 21
Manuscript Deadline: 18 September 21

Abstract:
Robots have demonstrated the ability to perform hugely complex tasks when situated in well-structured environments such as a factory floor. However, in more unstructured, complex and unknown environments the capabilities of robots are severely diminished. In contrast, biological organisms are able to thrive in a wide variety of complex and unstructured environments with apparent ease. This is, in part, thanks to their embodied intelligence: the intelligence that emerges from the coupling between the brain, body and environment. Embodied intelligence can equip agents with the physical resilience and low-level computational capabilities, amongst other advantages, required to function in the wider world. As awareness of the influence of embodied intelligence has grown, so have a number of biologically inspired paradigms for implementing these concepts in robotic platforms, for example, morphological computation and sensory-motor coordination. By understanding design principles in biological systems and identifying methods for the design and fabrication of similar techniques for artificial systems, we can forge a path for increasingly capable, resilient, and intelligent robots.

The goal of this Research Topic is to further our understanding of biological mechanisms, materials and intelligence, and also bio-inspired technologies and approaches for robots and embodied systems. In addition, application and demonstration of embodied intelligence for solving otherwise complex tasks. In summary:

– Through the study of nature and biology, identify mechanisms of embodied intelligence
– Identify new design and manufacturing methods and approaches for implementing embodied intelligence in robotic hardware
– Demonstrate and exploit the design of the ‘body’ to simplify control, sensing and learning tasks
– Demonstrate and utilize the role of embodied intelligence in adaption, growth, evolutionary development and cognitive development for robotic systems
– Identify design methodologies and rules for systems with embodied intelligence
Specific themes and Research Topic of interest include, but are not limited to:

– Self-organization and Bio-Inspired Robotics 
– Bio-hybrid robotic systems
– Cyborg systems
– Morphological computation and embodied intelligence in soft robots
– Cognitive Developmental Robotics
– Evolutionary robotics
– Brain and body co-development
– Smart materials
– Bio-inspired computational methodologies
– Emergent behaviors of embodied systems

We are looking forward for your contribution.

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E-Book on Embodied Intelligence – call for contributions

Call for Papers to the Proceedings of 2021 International Workshop on Embodied Intelligence

On behalf of the organizers, we would like to thank all of the speakers and participants for their contributions at the International Workshop on Embodied Intelligence. We received overwhelming positive feedback to the event owing to your contributions. For those interested, the available contents (programme, recorded lectures, and presentation slides) are now archived in the workshop website: http://eiworkshop.org/

To follow up our discussions for future references, here we would like to announce the plan for a follow-up publication. We solicit contributions from the workshop speakers and participants to describe your perspectives about Embodied Intelligence following the discussions in the workshop. The main idea of this proceedings is to keep the record of our discussions and your views for systematic and healthy development of the research and the community. Many of the stimulating ideas and discussions presented in the workshop are often not reflected in ordinary scientific publications for various reasons, but here we would like to provide opportunities to state your opinions publicly. Any topics related Embodied Intelligence are acceptable, in the form of, for example, position papers, review papers, technical papers, or personal reflection. Co-authoring is also highly encouraged with the other workshop participants or with your own students/co-workers.

For your inspirations, you can find some examples from our previous publication projects of this kind:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/b99075
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-540-77296-5

Key dates
Expression of Interest (tentative titles and authors): May 21, 2021
Paper submission deadline: August 31, 2021
Reviewer feedback: October 15, 2021
Final submission deadline: December 31, 2021
Publication date: March 1, 2022

Submission
The Expression of Interests and the manuscripts should be submitted by email to:
ebook-submission@eiworkshop.org
Guide for authors
We are planning to publish this proceeding with the IOP Press Conference Series. Your contributions will be reviewed by the community members for constructive feedback, then published as open-access publications in IOP Press. The organizers are exploring funding options to cover the Open Access charges, but we might have to ask for some small author contributions (up to £50 per article). There is no strict page limit, but we expect each contribution to be either a short paper (3-6 pages) or a long paper (7-20 pages).

Below is the instructions for authors:
https://publishingsupport.iopscience.iop.org/author-guidelines-for-conference-proceedings/
https://publishingsupport.iopscience.iop.org/questions/iop-proceedings-licence/
Editorial team:
Fumiya Iida, Josie Hughes, Toby Howison, Josh Bongard, Kohei Nakajima