On the occasion of the celebration of IROS 2018 (International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems) in Madrid we had the opportunity to meet John Long, director of the Interdisciplinary Robotics Laboratory at Vassar College in New York. In this interview, the biologist helps us understand the importance of a structure to which we do not always pay much attention: the vertebral column, which is also the basis of the movement of many fish.
Long has found a very novel application in the field of robotics : he is dedicated to recreating animal models to observe their evolution. In addition, it is implementing development processes in its robots. "We think that development errors are very important for the evolution of populations," said the expert.
