As robots become more omnipresent in our society, we are facing the challenge of making them more socially competent. However, in order to safely and meaningfully cooperate with humans, robots must be able to interact in ways that humans find intuitive and understandable. Addressing this challenge, we propose a novel approach for understanding and modelling social behaviour and implementing social coupling in robots. Our approach presents a radical departure from the classical view of social cognition as mind-reading, mentalising or maintaining internal rep-resentations of other agents. This project is based on the view that even complex modes of social interaction are grounded in basic sensorimotor interaction patterns. SensoriMotor Contingencies (SMCs) are known to be highly relevant in cognition. Our key hypothesis is that learning and mastery of action-effect contingencies are also critical to enable effective coupling of agents in social contexts. We use “socSMCs” as a shorthand for such socially rele-vant action-effect contingencies. We will investigate socSMCs in human-human and human-robot social interaction scenarios. The main objectives of the project are to elaborate and investigate the concept of socSMCs in terms of information-theoretic and neurocomputational models, to deploy them in the control of humanoid robots (PR2, REEM-C) for social entrainment with humans, to elucidate the mechanisms for sustaining and exercising socSMCs in the human brain, to study their breakdown in patients with autism spectrum disorders, and to benchmark the socSMCs approach in several demonstrator scenarios. Our long term vision is to realize a new socially competent robot technology grounded in novel insights into mechanisms of functional and dysfunctional social behavior, and to test novel aspects and strategies for human-robot interaction and cooperation that can be applied in a multitude of assistive roles relying on highly compact computational solutions.

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, are a major public health issue given the aging population in Europe and beyond. While curative pharmacological treatment of these diseases is not in sight, cell replacement therapies (CTs) are considered very promising, in particular with the advent of stem-cell reprogramming technologies. However, a fundamental challenge in the medical application of CTs in the brain of patients lies in the lack of control of cell behaviour at the site of transplantation, and particularly their differentiation and oriented growth. The aim of this project is to introduce a fundamentally new concept for remote control of cellular functions by means of magnetic manipulation. The technology is based on magnetic nanoparticles functionalized with proteins involved in cellular signalling cascades. These biofunctionalized MNPs (bMNPs) will be delivered into target cells, where they act as intracellular signalling platforms activatable in a spatially and temporally controlled manner by external magnetic fields. The project will focus on engineering these tools for the control of neuronal cell programming and fibre outgrowth by hijacking Wnt and neurotrophin signalling, respectively, with the ulti-mate objective of advancing cell replacement therapies for PD using dopaminergic precursor neurons. To achieve this ambitious goal, we have gathered an interdisciplinary consortium interfacing scientists having cutting-edge know-how in bMNP engineering, surface functionalization and cellular nanobiophysics with renowned experts in neuronal cell differentiation, stem-cell reprogramming and regenerative (nano-)medicine. By exploiting this complementary expertise, a novel, versatile technology for magnetic control of intracellular signalling is envis-aged, which will be a breakthrough for remote actuation of cellular functions and its successful implementation in CTs for neurodegenerative diseases and injuries within the following decade.

INTUITIVE will train a generation of early stage researcher (ESR) in ground breaking scientific and technological approaches in haptics. They will develop novel soft biomorphic tactile skin based on flexible electronics, miniaturized soft sensors, and a powerful new understanding of tactile information processing in humans - intrinsically shaped through the interaction with the environment, and aimed to advance robotics and assistive technology. The technological novelties of this project include touch sensor using materials such as graphene and new functionalities such as memory device in skin for deeper understanding of skin biomechanics through artificial means. Neuroscience investigations and computational modelling using predictive coding will explain how variable modes of interactions still lead to a stable representation of the objects we interact with, and how robots could use these principles to acquire knowledge of their haptic environment. This will also help developing intuitive and efficient haptic displays as an aid for the blind and prosthetics. Through participation in this ITN and targeted courses, the ESR will acquire complementary expertise of neuroscience, haptics, flexible electronics, microsensors, robotics and rehabilitation technology. This programme, proposed by 13 key academic, research institutes and industry, will deliver 540 person-months of unparalleled multidisciplinary research training to 15 ESRs. The ESR will be mentored by INTUITIVE PIs, who are pioneers in the neuroscience or/and technology of haptics and its applications. They will have access to state-of-the-art equipment including unique devices designed by the PIs. Hands-on project training will be supplemented with formal training courses in relevant fields and a variety of courses such as IPR, grant writing and exploiting the scientific results. Mobility within the network targeted to each ESR will ensure exposure to both academic and industrial environments.