Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen rapid advancements in recent years, particularly in the areas of deep learning and the ability to generalize from concrete objects to abstract concepts. Meanwhile, in the study of machine consciousness, a universally agreed definition among scientists and philosophers is still lacking.This book raises a number of issues surrounding the nature and implications of conscious artificial intelligence:This edited volume consists of 10 chapters that highlight the prospects of machine consciousness and study the subject from several perspectives. The issues are wide-ranging and include topics such as the metaverse, a computational approach to pain and suffering, universal cognitive intelligence, intentional action, the categorization of conscious machines, and more. The volume is designed as a reference guide for researchers, practitioners, and students interested in the intersection of AI and consciousness.

Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems - BICS 2010 aims to bring together leading scientists and engineers who use analytic and synthetic methods both to understand the astonishing processing properties of biological systems and specifically of the brain, and to exploit such knowledge to advance engineering methods to build artificial systems with higher levels of cognitive competence.

BICS is a meeting point of brain scientists and cognitive systems engineers where cross-domain ideas are fostered in the hope of getting emerging insights on the nature, operation and extractable capabilities of brains. This multiple approach is necessary because the progressively more accurate data about the brain is producing a growing need of a quantitative understanding and an associated capacity to manipulate this data and translate it into engineering applications rooted in sound theories.

BICS 2010 is intended for both researchers that aim to build brain inspired systems with higher cognitive competences, and for life scientists who use and develop mathematical and engineering approaches for a better understanding of complex biological systems like the brain.

Four major interlaced focal symposia are planned for this conference and these are organized into patterns that encourage cross-fertilization across the symposia topics. This emphasizes the role of BICS as a major meeting point for researchers and practitioners in the areas of biological and artificial cognitive systems. Debates across disciplines will enrich researchers with complementary perspectives from diverse scientific fields.

BICS 2010 will take place July 14-16, 2010, in Madrid, Spain.

Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems - BICS 2010 aims to bring together leading scientists and engineers who use analytic and synthetic methods both to understand the astonishing processing properties of biological systems and specifically of the brain, and to exploit such knowledge to advance engineering methods to build artificial systems with higher levels of cognitive competence. BICS is a meeting point of brain scientists and cognitive systems engineers where cross-domain ideas are fostered in the hope of getting emerging insights on the nature, operation and extractable capabilities of brains. This multiple approach is necessary because the progressively more accurate data about the brain is producing a growing need of a quantitative understanding and an associated capacity to manipulate this data and translate it into engineering applications rooted in sound theories. BICS 2010 is intended for both researchers that aim to build brain inspired systems with higher cognitive competences, and for life scientists who use and develop mathematical and engineering approaches for a better understanding of complex biological systems like the brain. Four major interlaced focal symposia are planned for this conference and these are organized into patterns that encourage cross-fertilization across the symposia topics. This emphasizes the role of BICS as a major meeting point for researchers and practitioners in the areas of biological and artificial cognitive systems. Debates across disciplines will enrich researchers with complementary perspectives from diverse scientific fields. BICS 2010 will take place July 14-16, 2010, in Madrid, Spain.

The challenge of creating a real-life computational equivalent of the human mind requires that we better understand at a computational level how natural intelligent systems develop their cognitive and learning functions. In recent years, biologically inspired cognitive architectures have emerged as a powerful new approach toward gaining this kind of understanding (here biologically inspired is understood broadly as brain-mind inspired ). Still, despite impressive successes and growing interest in BICA, wide gaps separate different approaches from each other and from solutions found in biology. Modern scientific societies pursue related yet separate goals, while the mission of the BICA Society consists in the integration of many efforts in addressing the above challenge. Therefore, the BICA Society shall bring together researchers from disjointed fields and communities who devote their efforts to solving the same challenge, despite that they may speak different languages . This will be achieved by promoting and facilitating the transdisciplinary study of cognitive architectures, and in the long-term perspective creating one unifying widespread framework for the human-level cognitive architectures and their implementations.
This book is a proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the BICA Society, which was hold in Palermo-Italy from October 31 to November 2, 2012. The book describes recent advances and new challenges around the theme of understanding
how to create general-purpose humanlike artificial intelligence using inspirations from studies of the brain and the mind."

Questo libro costituisce un'eccellente introduzione ai fondamenti e ai metodi della progettazione e della sperimentazione di robot autonomi mobili.

La trattazione presenta in modo chiaro e rigoroso i temi centrali di questo complesso campo di ricerca: l'apprendimento e l'addestramento del robot; la navigazione autonoma in ambienti non modificati, soggetti a rumore e a eventi non prevedibili; l'analisi del comportamento del robot; il riconoscimento di novita percettive; la simulazione di robot reali.

Tredici dettagliati casi di studio mostrano come progettare e programmare robot reali in grado di eseguire i compiti assegnati.

Il libro rappresenta un riferimento indispensabile per gli studenti dei corsi universitari e di specializzazione nell'ambito della robotica, dell'intelligenza artificiale, delle scienze cognitive e dell'ingegneria dei robot, ma e accessibile anche a lettori con una preparazione scientifica non specifica.

This book is interdisciplinary and focuses on the topic of artificial consciousness: from neuroscience to artificial intelligence, from bioengineering to robotics. It provides an overview on the current state of the art of research in the field of artificial consciousness and includes extended and revised versions of the papers presented at the International Workshop on 'Artificial Consciousness', held in November 2005 at Agrigento (Italy).