19 found
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  1. Biorobotic experiments for the discovery of biological mechanisms.Edoardo Datteri & Guglielmo Tamburrini - 2007 - Philosophy of Science 74 (3):409-430.
    Robots are being extensively used for the purpose of discovering and testing empirical hypotheses about biological sensorimotor mechanisms. We examine here methodological problems that have to be addressed in order to design and perform “good” experiments with these machine models. These problems notably concern the mapping of biological mechanism descriptions into robotic mechanism descriptions; the distinction between theoretically unconstrained “implementation details” and robotic features that carry a modeling weight; the role of preliminary calibration experiments; the monitoring of experimental environments for (...)
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  2.  23
    Interactive biorobotics.Edoardo Datteri - 2020 - Synthese 198 (8):7577-7595.
    What can interactive robots offer to the study of social behaviour? Philosophical reflections about the use of robotic models in animal research have focused so far on methods involving robots which do not interact with the target system. Yet, leading researchers have claimed that interactive robots may constitute powerful experimental tools to study collective behaviour. Can they live up to these epistemic expectations? This question is addressed here by focusing on a particular experimental methodology involving interactive robots which has been (...)
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  3.  25
    Robotic Simulations, Simulations of Robots.Edoardo Datteri & Viola Schiaffonati - 2019 - Minds and Machines 29 (1):109-125.
    Simulation studies have been carried out in robotics for a variety of epistemic and practical purposes. Here it is argued that two broad classes of simulation studies can be identified in robotics research. The first one is exemplified by the use of robotic systems to acquire knowledge on living systems in so-called biorobotics, while the second class of studies is more distinctively connected to cases in which artificial systems are used to acquire knowledge about the behaviour of autonomous mobile robots. (...)
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  4.  48
    Model testing, prediction and experimental protocols in neuroscience: A case study.Edoardo Datteri & Federico Laudisa - 2012 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43 (3):602-610.
    In their theoretical and experimental reflections on the capacities and behaviours of living systems, neuroscientists often formulate generalizations about the behaviour of neural circuits. These generalizations are highly idealized, as they omit reference to the myriads of conditions that could perturb the behaviour of the modelled system in real-world settings. This article analyses an experimental investigation of the behaviour of place cells in the rat hippocampus, in which highly idealized generalizations were tested by comparing predictions flowing from them with real-world (...)
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  5.  55
    The Epistemic Value of Brain–Machine Systems for the Study of the Brain.Edoardo Datteri - 2017 - Minds and Machines 27 (2):287-313.
    Bionic systems, connecting biological tissues with computer or robotic devices through brain–machine interfaces, can be used in various ways to discover biological mechanisms. In this article I outline and discuss a “stimulation-connection” bionics-supported methodology for the study of the brain, and compare it with other epistemic uses of bionic systems described in the literature. This methododology differs from the “synthetic”, simulative method often followed in theoretically driven Artificial Intelligence and cognitive science, even though it involves machine models of biological systems. (...)
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  6.  43
    Simulation experiments in bionics: A regulative methodological perspective.Edoardo Datteri - 2009 - Biology and Philosophy 24 (3):301-324.
    Bionic technologies connecting biological nervous systems to computer or robotic devices for therapeutic purposes have been recently claimed to provide novel experimental tools for the investigation of biological mechanisms. This claim is examined here by means of a methodological analysis of bionics-supported experimental inquiries on adaptive sensory-motor behaviours. Two broad classes of bionic systems (regarded here as hybrid simulations of the target biological system) are identified, which differ from each other according to whether a component of the biological target system (...)
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  7.  20
    Biological accuracy in large-scale brain simulations.Edoardo Datteri - 2020 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 42 (1):1-22.
    The advancement of computing technology makes it possible to build extremely accurate digital reconstructions of brain circuits. Are such unprecedented levels of biological accuracy essential for brain simulations to play the roles they are expected to play in neuroscientific research? The main goal of this paper is to clarify this question by distinguishing between various roles played by large-scale simulations in contemporary neuroscience, and by reflecting about what makes a simulation biologically accurate. It is argued that large-scale simulations may play (...)
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  8.  59
    Scientific models and ethical issues in hybrid bionic systems research.Pericle Salvini, Edoardo Datteri, Cecilia Laschi & Paolo Dario - 2008 - AI and Society 22 (3):431-448.
    Research on hybrid bionic systems (HBSs) is still in its infancy but promising results have already been achieved in laboratories. Experiments on humans and animals show that artificial devices can be controlled by neural signals. These results suggest that HBS technologies can be employed to restore sensorimotor functionalities in disabled and elderly people. At the same time, HBS research raises ethical concerns related to possible exogenous and endogenous limitations to human autonomy and freedom. The analysis of these concerns requires reflecting (...)
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  9.  68
    Ethical reflections on health care robotics.Guglielmo Tamburrini & Edoardo Datteri - 2009 - In Capurro Raphael (ed.), Ethics and Robotics. IOS Press. pp. 35-48.
    Abstract. The rapid developments of robotics technologies in the last twenty years of the XX century have greatly encouraged research on the use of robots for surgery, diagnosis, rehabilitation, prosthetics, and assistance to disabled and elderly people. This chapter provides an overview of robotic technologies and systems for health care, focussing on various ethical problems that these technologies give rise to. These problems notably concern the protection of human physical and mental integrity, autonomy, responsibility, ...
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  10.  19
    Computer simulations and surrogative reasoning for the design of new robots.Viola Schiaffonati & Edoardo Datteri - 2023 - Synthese 202 (1):1-20.
    Computer simulations are widely used for surrogative reasoning in scientific research. They also play a crucial role in engineering, more specifically in the design of new robotic systems, yet the nature of this role has been little discussed so far in the philosophy of technology literature. The main claim made in this article is that the notion of surrogative reasoning is central to understanding how computer simulations can serve the purpose of designing new robots. More specifically, it is argued that (...)
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  11.  34
    Large-scale simulations of brain mechanisms: beyond the synthetic method.Edoardo Datteri & Federico Laudisa - unknown
    In recent years, a number of research projects have been proposed whose goal is to build large-scale simulations of brain mechanisms at unprecedented levels of biological accuracy. Here it is argued that the roles these simulations are expected to play in neuroscientific research go beyond the “synthetic method” extensively adopted in Artificial Intelligence and biorobotics. In addition we show that, over and above the common goal of simulating brain mechanisms, these projects pursue various modelling ambitions that can be sharply distinguished (...)
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  12.  14
    Going Beyond the “Synthetic Method”: New Paradigms Cross-Fertilizing Robotics and Cognitive Neuroscience.Edoardo Datteri, Thierry Chaminade & Donato Romano - 2022 - Frontiers in Psychology 13.
    In so-called ethorobotics and robot-supported social cognitive neurosciences, robots are used as scientific tools to study animal behavior and cognition. Building on previous epistemological analyses of biorobotics, in this article it is argued that these two research fields, widely differing from one another in the kinds of robots involved and in the research questions addressed, share a common methodology, which significantly differs from the “synthetic method” that, until recently, dominated biorobotics. The methodological novelty of this strategy, the research opportunities that (...)
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  13.  9
    Large-Scale Simulations of the Brain: Is There a “Right” Level of Detail?Edoardo Datteri - 2019 - In Matteo Vincenzo D'Alfonso & Don Berkich (eds.), On the Cognitive, Ethical, and Scientific Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence. Springer Verlag. pp. 205-219.
    A number of research projects have recently taken up the challenge of formulating large-scale models of brain mechanisms at unprecedented levels of detail. These research enterprises have raised lively debates in the press and in the scientific and philosophical literature, some of them revolving around the question whether the incorporation of so many details in a theoretical model and in a computer simulations of it is really needed for the model to be explanatory. Is there a “right” level of detail? (...)
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  14.  22
    Machine learning from examples: A non-inductivist analysis.Edoardo Datteri, Hykel Hosni & Guglielmo Tamburrini - 2005 - Logic and Philosophy of Science 3 (1):1-31.
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  15.  13
    Robotica e filosofia della scienza.Edoardo Datteri - 2022 - Scienza E Filosofia 27:197-217.
    Robotics and Philosophy of Science What relationship holds between robotics and philosophy of science? Can robotics research contribute to research in philosophy of science? Conversely, can the results achieved by philosophers of science contribute to the progress of research in robotics? This article will deal with both questions based on the distinction between the so-called philosophy of general science and the philosophy of the particular sciences. It will draw relatively pessimistic conclusions about the possibility that robotics research shed light on (...)
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  16. Quale etica per la robotica?Adriano Fabris, Sergio Bartolommei & Edoardo Datteri - 2007 - Teoria 27 (2):7-17.
    First of all, in this paper we provide some clarifications on the several meanings of the term ‘ethics’, above all in the light of contemporary discussions on this matter. Then we analyze an important ethical concept, i.e. the concept of moral responsibility, for the sake of clarifying some problems concerning the human-robot relationship. Finally, we try to develop a well defined pattern of “ethics of responsibility” in order to give a general background for resolving concrete dilemmas that may arise in (...)
     
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  17.  38
    Empirically testable models are needed for understanding visual prediction.Giuseppe Trautteur, Edoardo Datteri & Matteo Santoro - 2008 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31 (2):217-218.
    Nijhawan argues convincingly that predictive mechanisms are pervasive in the central nervous system (CNS). However, scientific understanding of visual prediction requires one to formulate empirically testable neurophysiological models. The author's suggestions in this direction are to be evaluated on the basis of more realistic experimental methodologies and more plausible assumptions on the hierarchical character of the human visual cortex.
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  18.  40
    Machine experiments and theoretical modelling: From cybernetic methodology to neuro-robotics. [REVIEW]Guglielmo Tamburrini & Edoardo Datteri - 2005 - Minds and Machines 15 (3-4):335-358.
    Cybernetics promoted machine-supported investigations of adaptive sensorimotor behaviours observed in biological systems. This methodological approach receives renewed attention in contemporary robotics, cognitive ethology, and the cognitive neurosciences. Its distinctive features concern machine experiments, and their role in testing behavioural models and explanations flowing from them. Cybernetic explanations of behavioural events, regularities, and capacities rely on multiply realizable mechanism schemata, and strike a sensible balance between causal and unifying constraints. The multiple realizability of cybernetic mechanism schemata paves the way to principled (...)
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  19. Predicting the Long-Term Effects of Human-Robot Interaction: A Reflection on Responsibility in Medical Robotics. [REVIEW]Edoardo Datteri - 2013 - Science and Engineering Ethics 19 (1):139-160.
    This article addresses prospective and retrospective responsibility issues connected with medical robotics. It will be suggested that extant conceptual and legal frameworks are sufficient to address and properly settle most retrospective responsibility problems arising in connection with injuries caused by robot behaviours (which will be exemplified here by reference to harms occurred in surgical interventions supported by the Da Vinci robot, reported in the scientific literature and in the press). In addition, it will be pointed out that many prospective responsibility (...)
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