Olympic Flame

13 September 2011

Scientists at Aberystwyth University have nominated a humanoid

robotto carry the Olympic Flame as part of the London 2012

Olympic Torch Relay.

The iCub has been nominated by Dr James Law from

the Department of Computer Science to mark the centenary

in 2012 of the birth of Alan Turing,the father of modern computer

science.A child-like humanoid robot, the iCub is part of a

research projectat Aberystwyth University into how learning

processes in young childrencan be translated into strategies for

learning in robots.

James said: “2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth

on Alan Turing,the founder of computer science and a

figureheadfor the code breaking efforts of WWII. Arobot torch

bearer would be a fitting tribute to Alan Turing,and an

inspiration to future generationsof scientists and engineers.

“Alan Turing is widely known for his role in developing

computing methods for code breaking in WWII, but this is only

a small part of his truly inspiring work.He created one of the

first designs for a stored-program computer and laid the

foundations for the field of Artificial Intelligence.

These achievements led to the computerised era we live

in today,and prepared the way for the robotics research being

carried out here at Aberystwyth University”, he added.

The iCub was acquired by the Developmental Robotics Group

at Aberystwyth part of the “IM-CLeVeR” (Intrinsically Motivated

Cumulative Learning Versatile Robots) project which aims to

develop new robot controllers based on ideas inspired by

neuroscience and psychology. 

Research at Aberystwyth is focused on identifying processes of

development in infants and translating them into strategies for

learning in robotics.

The project involves 10 partner institutions from across Europe

working in fields including robotics, neuroscience,

developmental psychology and machine learning.

Funding, €5.9m overall with £760,000 for the Aberystwyth team,

has been provided by the European Community's Seventh

Framework Programme, Cognitive Systems, Interaction,

Robotics.

The iCub has been nominated to carry the Olympic flame

with Lloyds TSB