Garnet Hertz - Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine: Thesis Manuscript Development Plan

THESIS (MANUSCRIPT OUTLINE / TABLE OF CONTENTS - WITH DEADLINES)

Content Development: "Chapter" Strategy
1. Introduction (Purpose: Integrating concepts) - INCOMPLETE (July 2004)
  ABSTRACT: An introduction will lead off the written document, and will give an overview of several key concepts within the text: the document title in respect to Norbert Weiner's "Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine", a description of the practical project and how it relates to written thesis, and an introduction to biorobotics, animal-machine hybrids, and posthumanism.
  1. Title in respect to Norbert Weiner's "Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine"
  2. Description of practical project and how it relates to written thesis
2. On the Emergence of Intelligence: World Models, Life and Simple Organisms - COMPLETE (Winter 2005)
  ABSTRACT: This chapter looks at the topics of emergence, intelligence and how simple organisms challenge monolithic/brain-centric concepts of intelligence. Drawing from the research of Rodney Brooks and the writings of Christopher Langton, the text attempts to explain the foundations of bio-inspired emergent intelligence.
  1. Emergence as a Phenomenon
  2. Emerging Intelligence and Life, Artificially
  3. Ambler, the Ant and Emergence: The World is Its Own Best Model
  4. Conclusion: Real-World Thickness
3. The Differences Between Machines and Animals - INCOMPLETE (Mid-Spring 2005)
  1. Marx
  2. Wiener
  3. Monod
  4. Deleuze & Gauttari
4. The Animal-Machine: Technology, Between Muscle and Language - COMPLETE (Fall 2004)
  ABSTRACT: "The Animal-Machine: Technology, Between Muscle and Language" takes a look at how animals and machines have combined. Within this chapter, two concepts will be described: technology that is haunted by the spirits of animals, and the role of language within the context of cyborg soldiers and biomimetic weapons.
  1. Between Muscle and Language: Technology Haunted by the Spirits of Animals
  2. Between Muscle and Language: Cyborg Soldiers and Biomimetic Weapons
5. Chess, Violence and Embodiment: Pervasive Computing and DARPA's Dream of the Cyborg Soldier - COMPLETE (Summer 2004)
  ABSTRACT: Weapon and defense technologies throughout the history of war have been used to enhance the soldier's embodied capacities and cognitive limitations. Technology abstracts physical violence according to the system of war, often aiming to produce humans as super-human fighting machines. Contemporary research, as funded by the American military, continues to develop this dream of the cyborg soldier. This chapter analyzes contemporary work, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and pays special attention to ubiquitous computing technologies which extend computationalism into pervasive, subdermal applications. Embedded computing and interaction design take on new meaning within this context: ubiquity is much more complicated within the context of a world-as-interface that is political, economic, international and violent. The cyborg soldier is only a dream, however: the human fighting machine speaks of an age-old trope wherein a human/machine hybridity unrealistically simplifies the interface to the visceral mess of war.
  1. Introduction: Chess and the Technological Abstraction of Violence
  2. Contemporary Chaturanga: The American Military and Ubiquitous Embodied Computing
  3. Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation
  4. Neovision
  5. Human Assisted Neural Devices
  6. Controlled Biological Systems
  7. Conclusion: The Dream of a Cyborg Soldier and Simplified Interfaces of Violence
6. Animal-Control: A Survey of Animal-Controlled Machines - INCOMPLETE (Spring 2005)
  1. Scope: Complete Animals, Experimental Mobile Devices
  2. SRL: Guinea Pig Controlled Four-Legged Robot
  3. Ken Rinaldo: Siamese Fighting Fish Devices
  4. Eight Bit Ant Farm
  5. Shimoyama: Grad Student Cockroach-controlled mobile robot
  6. Others
7. Preflexes, Munitions Targeting and Remote Controlled Insects: A Survey of the Intersection Between Cockroaches and Robotics - COMPLETE (Summer 2004)
  ABSTRACT: The sixth chapter, "Preflexes, Munitions Targeting and Remote Controlled Insects" provides a survey of how cockroaches and contemporary robotics are intricately linked. In the navigation of irregular and difficult terrain, cockroaches clearly inspire engineers that strive to build mobile robots to traverse variable, rugged landscapes. Neural network research used in the control of robots draws on cockroach neural models to build machines that accurately and quickly navigate complicated, variable environments. Actual living cockroaches are also used in hybrid robotic contexts. From leg kinematics to neural responses, the entire cockroach is embraced by the field of robotics: a field that holds the lowly cockroach in high regard. This chapter is designed to provide a clear overview of existing research in robotics that intertwines with cockroaches. A total of fifteen robot/cockroach papers or projects are reviewed, and are organized in the following categories: Cockroach Mobility Observations for Biomimetic Robotics, Cockroach-mimetic Mobile Robot Implementations, Cockroach-mimetic Neural Networks in Robotics, and Living Cockroaches in Hybrid Robotic Systems.
  1. Cockroach Mobility Observations for Biomimetic Robotics
    1. Finite element analysis of strains in a Blaberus cockroach leg during climbing (Kaliyahoorthy, Zill, Quinn, Ritzmann: 2001)
    2. Mechanized Cockroach Footpaths Enable Cockroach-like Mobility (Boggess et al., 2004)
    3. Dynamic Stabilization of Rapid Hexapedal Locomotion (Jindrich, Full: 2002)
    4. Comparing Cockroach and Whegs Robot Body Motions (Shroer et al.)
  2. Cockroach-mimetic Mobile Robot Implementations
    1. Robot I: Cockroach Series (Case Western Reserve Biologically Inspired Robotics Laboratory: c. 1992)
    2. Robot II: Cockroach Series (Case Western Reserve Biologically Inspired Robotics Laboratory: c. 1995)
    3. Robot III: Cockroach Series (Case Western Reserve Biologically Inspired Robotics Laboratory: c. 1998)
    4. Robot IV: Cockroach Series (Case Western Reserve Biologically Inspired Robotics Laboratory: c. 2000)
    5. Robot V: Cockroach Series (Case Western Reserve Biologically Inspired Robotics Laboratory: c. 2003)
    6. Biomimetic Small Walking Machine (Kagawa, Kazerooni: 2001)
  3. Cockroach-mimetic Neural Networks in Robotics
    1. A Crash Avoidance System Based Upon the Cockroach Escape Response Circuit (Chen, Quinn, Ritzmann: 1997)
    2. An Insect-Inspired Endgame Targeting Reflex for Autonomous Munitions (Vasdyantham, Quinn, Ritzmann, Prince: 2001)
    3. An Insect-Inspired Targeting/Evasion Reflex for Autonomous Air Vehicles (Vaidyanthan, Williams, Prince, Ritzmann, Quinn: 2002)
  4. Living Cockroaches in Hybrid Robotic Systems
    1. Behavioral Response of Insects to Electric Stimulation (Control of Insect Motor Function), (Holzer: 1998)
    2. InsBot: Design of an Autonomous Mini Mobile robot Able to Interact with Cockroaches (Colot, Caprari, Siegwart: 2004)
  5. Conclusion: Preflexes, Munitions Targeting and Remote Controlled Insects
8. Cyborg Embodiment and Hybrid Biomechatronic Devices - COMPLETE (will likely not be used as a chapter: will be integrated into another section)
  ABSTRACT: "Cyborg Embodiment and Hybrid Biomechatronic Devices" looks at current research in actin-myosin robotics, as explored through the Muscle-Powered Fish Robot of Robert G. Dennis (UMich) and Hugh Herr (MIT). This text describes Actin-Myosin Robotics, the team's B1 Biomechatronic Fish, related research in biological (synthetic) prosthetics, and a conclusion that considers living tissues as tools of technology.
  1. Introduction
  2. Contexts: Actin-Myosin Robotics
  3. Actin-Myosin Machines: The B1 Biomechatronic Fish
  4. Research Objectives: Biological (Synthetic) Prosthetics
  5. Future Vision: The Destiny of Living Tissues as Tools
  6. Conclusion: Cyborg Embodiment and Technology/Biology
9. Skeuomorphs of Virtuality: Contemporary Embodiment Beyond Posthumanism - COMPLETE (March 2004)
  ABSTRACT: "Skeuomorphs of Virtuality: Contemporary Embodiment Beyond Posthumanism" takes aim at key concepts of posthumanism. It interprets contemporary views of posthumanism - as described by Katherine Hayles, for example - as being overly influenced by theories of virtuality. This influence impacts contemporary thought on embodiment: the concept that technology has supplanted the human form as the reflective core of the human self is misguided and reminiscent of dotcom dreams of virtual existence. Instead, a view is put forth that sees humans as being consistently hybrid through the course of history: contemporary technology only adds a twist to the age-old narrative of drawing existential meaning from the externally referent.
  1. "The concrete is not a step towards anything: it is how we arrive and where we stay." (Varela)
  2. Groundwork: Posthumanism, Skeuomorphs and Virtuality
  3. The Eyes of Contemporary Embodiment
    1. Eyes of Embodiment: Bodily Practices
    2. Eyes of Embodiment: Language and Cognition
    3. Eyes of Embodiment: Science
    4. Eyes of Embodiment: Art
  4. Third Order Cybernetics, Unskeued
  5. How We Were Always Hybrid
  6. Continuity of the Externally Referent
  7. Conclusion
10. Beyond Flickering Signifiers: Frissonic Value and Shifting Boundaries in the Context of Contemporary Hybridity - COMPLETE (March 2004)
  1. Shifting Boundaries of Humanity: Variable, Abstracted, Non-Human
  2. The Skueomorph of the Virtual
  3. Encountering the Posthuman and the History of the Hybrid
  4. Mori and Robotic Design: The Psychodynamics of the Uncanny Valley
  5. Frissonics of the Flickering Signifier: Contemporary Hybrid Encounters
  6. Conclusion: Frissonic Encounters with the Posthuman
11. Conclusion (Purpose: Integrating concepts) - INCOMPLETE (Spring 2005)
  1. Re-integration and review of concepts, extending into encounters with the posthuman
12. APPENDIX ABSTRACT: The end of the document will five appendices: Frequently Asked Questions, Visual Documentation, a "Bookwork" Document, Technical Schematics, and a Video Documentation DVD. The FAQ will provide answers to common questions that arise when demoing the cockroach-controlled robot. Visual Documentation will include high resolution still images, photographic documentation of robot demos, and scanned copies of printed press about the project. The "Bookwork" Document will be a mini-thesis of sorts, and will be produced as a black-and-white hardcopy brochure to accompany robot during demonstration or exhibition. Technical Schematics will provide circuit diagrams of different iterations of the machine, and the DVD will provide a simple narrated overview of the machine, its development and its operation.
13. Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions CURRENTLY UP-TO-DATE (December 2004)
  1. Robot Operation: How Does it Work?
  2. The Cockroach On The Robot
  3. Life as a Cockroach
  4. Similar Research
  5. Project Funding
  6. Rationale and Goals of this project
  7. Project History & Development
14. Appendix B: Visual Documentation CURRENTLY UP-TO-DATE (December 2004)
  1. High Resolution Still Images
  2. Demonstration Documentation
  3. Printed Press
15. Appendix C: "Bookwork" Document INCOMPLETE (Spring 2005)
  1. A hardcopy of an in-gallery handout to accompany robot during exhibition
16. Appendix D: Technical Schematics IN PROGRESS (March 2005)
  1. Technical Description
  2. Schematics: Version 0.1
  3. Schematics: Version 0.2
17. Appendix E: Video Documentation DVD INCOMPLTE (Spring 2005)
  1. A compilation of video documentation of practical project