From Man Machine to Machine Man

By Abderrahmane Kheddar (Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics).

One way to understand how we think and act on our environment is to try to replicate our abilities. For example, designing a kind of functional copy of ourselves, a cybernetic avatar using robotic technology and digital intelligence to emulate our behaviors as well as our motor and perceptual abilities. Humanoid robots have real potential for use in many applications; however, they are also a tool for studying fundamental questions related to the eternal quest for human augmentation. Their form gives them interesting properties in terms of integration, interaction, empathy, and embodiment. Embodiment is a characteristic that goes beyond robotic telepresence technologies: its mechanisms and effective characterization are far from well understood. Yet this understanding is very important for bionic robotics technologies and wearable robotics in general.