- Robots: The RBCog-Lab team has participated in the development of the iCub robotic platform, and we host the only instance of the iCub in Portugal. The iCub is an Advanced humanoid robot equipped with 53 motors moving the head, arms, hands, waist, and legs. It includes cameras with human-like movement performance, stereo hearing capabilities, tactile and proprioceptive sensors. The iCub was designed to mimic a 3-year-old child. Its anthropomorphism is noticeable in its complex hands, facial expressions, and realistic movements of its waist, arms, and eyes. In addition to a full body iCub, we also have two iCub heads mounted on fixed torsos (Chico and Chica).
Finally, the laboratory hosts a wheeled robotic platform (Vizzy) capable of tether-free movements, based on the same software platform as the iCub.
- Other equipment:
- Eye Tracking System (Tobii)
- Motion/gaze capture system (Optitrack)
- Inertial Measurement Units (Xsens, LP Research)
- Cameras (Point Grey Research)
- 3D sensors (Microsoft Kinect v1 and v2, Asus Xtion, Orbbec Astra, SoftKinetic DepthSense)
- VR Headset (Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Accessories)
The Robotics, Brain, and Cognition Laboratory (RBCog-Lab) is a concentrated research infrastructure in the area of cognitive robotics. The core of the infrastructure consists of robotic platforms (hardware, software, and support crew) which includes one iCub robot, the most sophisticated humanoid robot in the world in terms of degrees of freedom. RBCog-Lab is a unique infrastructure aiming to integrate multidisciplinary findings from neuroscience, developmental psychology, cognitive science, perception and machine learning to design methods and representations based on embodied learning and self-exploration.
This will allow the development of Advanced perception capabilities, thus providing robots with the ability to learn and improve skills through experience and interaction with the environment, with the potential of reaching human-like skills in terms of dexterity and adaptability.
The ISR/IST host group is one of the developers of the original platform and hosts the only such robot existing in Portugal. RBCog-Lab includes additional robots (e.g. Vizzy, a wheeled robot with iCub-compatible software interfaces) and equipment such as motion capture systems and gaze trackers. The project was founded on a neuroscientific basis, keeping a strong link with this community during past and ongoing research projects.
Other recipients of this infrastructure come from a variety of fields such as robotics, engineering, developmental psychology, rehabilitation, education, and more.