Biologically Inspired Robotics Group Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne

The Biologically Inspired Robotics Group (BIRG, http://birg.epfl.ch) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) carries out research in robotics, computational neuroscience, nonlinear dynamical systems, and learning/optimization algorithms. We are interested in understanding the fascinating control and learning abilities observed in animals, and to develop systems –programs, simulations, and robots– that exhibit and replicate those abilities. In particular, we are interested in developing systems that evolve, adapt, self-organize, and self-repair. The group was founded in November 2002. It is headed by Auke Ijspeert (assistant professor), and is composed of one part-time postdoc –Dr Olivier Michel–, three PhD students –Jonas Buchli, Alessandro Crespi, and Ludovic Righetti–, one programmer –Yvan Bourquin–, and two part-time electromechanical technicians –André Badertscher and André Guignard. The group has funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss CTI (Swiss Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology), the EPFL, the European Space Agency, and the European Union, through the Integrated Project ROBOT-CUB (IST-FET6).