Pedro Lima

The Lisbon Robotics Cluster is an initiative of the Lisbon City Council to federate and present under a common brand companies producing robot systems, end-users, existing research centres from several higher education institutions in the Lisbon area and high schools. In addition to the new brand, the LRC will be the starting point for the formal establishment of a network of strategic partners, including the creation of an incubator of companies, a structure of support and dynamisation of the robotics cluster in the municipality, a living lab and a network of hot spots throughout the city—spaces for testing and experimentation of robotics equipment and products, e.g., marine robots, drones and aerial robotics, and mobility equipment, developed by research centres and companies—open to professionals and in some cases to the general public. The LRC intends to leverage the research, development and innovation in the Lisbon area, through attraction of funding for projects and the identification of problems of interest for the municipality for which solution robot systems can be beneficial.

Pioneer approaches to Artificial Intelligence have traditionally neglected, in a chronological sequence, the agent body, the world where the agent is situated, and the other agents. With the advent of Collective Robotics approaches, important progresses were made toward embodying and situating the agents, together with the introduction of collective intelligence. However, the currently used models of social environments are still rather poor, jeopardizing the attempts of developing truly intelligent robot teams. In this paper, we propose a roadmap for a new approach to the design of multi-robot systems, mainly inspired by concepts from Institutional Economics, an alternative to mainstream neoclassical economic theory. Our approach intends to sophisticate the design of robot collectives by adding, to the currently popular emergentist view, the concepts of physically and socially bounded autonomy of cognitive agents, uncoupled interaction among them and deliberately set up coordination devices.

Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM), a type of plant‐fungal endosymbiosis, and nodulation, a bacterial‐plant endosymbiosis, are the most ubiquitous symbioses on earth. Recent findings have established part of a shared genetic basis underlying these interactions. Here, we approach root endosymbioses through the lens of the homology and modularity concepts aiming at further clarifying the proximate and ultimate causes for the establishment of these biological systems. We review the genetics that underlie interspecific signaling and its concomitant shift in genetic programs for either partner. Also, through the comparative analysis of genetic modules shared by AM and nodulation symbioses, we identify fundamental nodes in these networks, suggesting the elemental steps that may have permitted symbiotic adaptation. Here, we show that this approach, allied to recent technical advances in the study of genetic systems architecture, can provide clear testable hypotheses for the advancement of our understanding on the evolution and development of symbiotic systems.