Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena TESIS DOCTORAL “UNA ...

Summary
Introduction, Objectives and Organization of
the Thesis.
1. Introduction
Robotics has become into a traditional field in which research is made by engineers
and scientist from different science disciplines such as mathematics, physics, medicine,
neurosciences etc. It is evident that in the last years , robotics has evolve to be a
multidisciplinary area getting closer and closer to everyday life of human beings such
as in the cases of robotics applied to rehabilitation or surgery. It also has been
established the use of robotics as a tool for the study of the Man and other biological
systems or even to construct artificial anthropomorphic components such as, arms,
sensors or cognitive – behavioural schemas able to substitute their biological
counterparts in some situations.
In the last years, it has been established within the robotics community, the idea
about that the understanding of the nervous system of humans and monkeys has also a
potential industrial or productive interest. The artificial intelligence industrial devices
are more and more inspired in Biology. The brain operates in way very different to the
way an actual robot actually operates. The mechanisms for information processing are
vastly more complex and subtle in brain neural circuits than in the electronic circuits of
the actual robots. The interactions within groups of neurons modify the properties of
neural firing of these neurons in their interaction with sensory signals from the external
world. An elemental learning such as avoiding behaviours with negative consequences,
imply millions of neuronal events, including the reconfiguration and establishment of
new neuronal connections. This is what is called ‘adaptability to environment’ of the
biological systems.