These lectures focus mainly on computational approaches to biological motor control and to the possible interface between current research in motor control and robotics. The generation of goal-directed motor behavior requires the brain to carry out extremely complicated but, as yet, poorly understood computations. Computational studies of motor control inquire directly into the nature of the information processing principles and the control strategies underlying movement generation. This research area intertwines with robotics, which shares a similar goal of translating perception into action. Research in robotics has proven to be a useful medium for proposing and testing the validity of various notions about biological motor control. Likewise, since human capabilities far surpass those of artificial systems, insights gained from biological motor control studies may provide us with useful ideas for designing and controlling robotic systems. In the forthcoming lectures I shall discuss several problems which are at the center of current research in biological motor control. I shall also review some of our current ideas and hypotheses about the strategies for motion planning and control evolved by the brain to deal with these computational problems.
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Guest lecturer
Neural Control of Movement: Principles and Models
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