AI Lab

Department of Informatics, University of Zurich

AILab
 
Peter Eggenberger Hotz
Peter Eggenberger Hotz

Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Department of Informatics
University of Zurich
Andreasstrasse 15 (Office 2.14)
8050 Zurich
Switzerland

phone: + 41 44 635 67 55
fax: + 41 44 635 45 07
e-mail: eggen@ifi.uzh.ch
 

Research

My research at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is mainly focused on the evolution of complete, modular agents in real-world and simulation. In collaboration with Professor Enrico Martinoia (Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zurich), Doctor Ruedi Füchslin (Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Zurich), and Doctoral Students Daniel German, Maik Hadorn ,and Shuhei Miyashita (Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Zurich) I study novel Information Technology making strong use of life-like properties such as robustness, self-repair, self-assembly, modularity, self-organization genetic programmability, and evolvability.

So far, I have published 40 peer reviewed journal and conference papers, was author of four book chapters, and was involved in two projects of the European Commission and three projects of the Swiss National Foundation.

Publications

Selected scientific publications

  1. Peter Eggenberger. Cell interactions as a control tool of developmental processes for evolutionary robotics. In [36], pages 440–448, 1996.
  2. Peter Eggenberger. Creation of neural networks based on developmental and evolutionary principles. In [20], pages 337–342, 1997.
  3. Peter Eggenberger. Evolving morphologies of simulated 3d organisms based on differential gene expression. In [32], 1997.
  4. Peter Eggenberger. Evolving neural network structures using axonal growth mechanisms. In Proceedings of The Fifth Int. Symp. on Artificial Life and Robotics (AROB 5th’00), pages 208–211, 2000.
  5. Peter Eggenberger. Evolving neural network structures using axonal growth mechanisms. In International Joined Conference on Neural Networks, 2000.
  6. Peter Eggenberger. Axonal growth in evolutionary neurogenesis. Artificial Life and Robotics, 5(3):137–141, 2001.
  7. Peter Eggenberger. On evolving a simulated foveating retina. 3D Forum: The Journal of Three Dimensional Pictures, 15(4):164–169, 12 2001.
  8. Peter Eggenberger. Principles of developmental biology and their use to evolve morhologies and neural net concurrently. In Shaping embodied intelligence: the morpho-functional machine perspectives.International Workshop on Morphofunctional Machines, Tokyo, pages 282–294, 2001.
  9. Peter Eggenberger. Suitable evolutionary strategies for large scale neural networks. In Proceedings of The Sixth Int. Symp. on Artificial Life and Robotics (AROB 6th’00), pages 152–153, 2001.
  10. Peter Eggenberger. Combining developmental processes and their physics in an artificial evolutionary system to evolve shapes. In Sanjeev Kumar and Peter J. Bentley, editors, On Growth, Form and Computers, 2003.
  11. Peter Eggenberger. Evolving morphologies and neural controllers based on the same underlying principle: Specific ligand-receptor interactions. In Fumio Hara and Rolf Pfeifer, editors, Morpho-functional Machines: The New Species (Designing Ebmodied Intelligence), pages 217–236, 2003.
  12. Peter Eggenberger. Exploring regenerative mechanisms found in flatworms by artificial evolutionary techniques using genetic regulatory networks. In Proceedings of The IEEE 2003 Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC2003), 2003.
  13. Peter Eggenberger. Genome-physics interaction as a new concept to reduce the number of genetic parameters in artificial evolution. In Proceedings of The IEEE 2003 Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC2003), 2003.
  14. Peter Eggenberger and Raja Dravid. An evolutionary approach to pattern formation mechanisms on lepidopteran wings. In Congress of Evolutionary Computation, Washington, pages 337–342, 1999.
  15. Peter Eggenberger and Gabriel Gomez. The transfer problem from simulation to the real world in artifical evolution. In Workshop and Tutorial Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (Alife IX), pages 17–20, 2004.
  16. Peter Eggenberger, Gabriel Gomez, and Rolf Pfeifer. Evolving the morphology of a neural network for controlling a foveating retina - and its test on a real robot. In Proceedings of The Eighth International Symposium on Artificial Life, pages 243–251, 2002.
  17. Peter Eggenberger, Akio Ishiguro, Seiji Tokura, Toshiyuki Kondo, and Yoshiki Uchikawa. Torwar seamless transfer from simulated to real worlds: A dynamically-rearranging neural network. In EWLR, pages 44–60, 1999.
  18. Akinobu Fujii, Akio Ishiguro, and Peter Eggenberger. Evolving a cpg controller for a biped robot with neuromodulation. In 5th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines, pages 509–518, 2002.
  19. Akinobu Fujii, Akio Ishiguro, Hiroki Kawai, and Peter Eggenberger. Evolving bipedal locomotion with a dynamically-rearranging neural network. In European Conference of Artificial Life ECAL 1999, pages 509–518, 1999.
  20. Wulfram Gerstner, Alain Germond, Martin Hasler, and Jean-Daniel Nicoud (Eds.), editors. Seventh International Conference of Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN’97), Cambridge, MA, 1997. Sprinter.
  21. Gabriel Gomez and Peter Eggenberger. Investigations on the robustness of evolved learning mechanisms for a robot arm. In IAS-8: 8th Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, 2003.
  22. Gabriel Gomez and Peter Eggenberger. An evolved learning mechanism for teaching a robot to foveate. In Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, pages 655–658, 2004.
  23. Gabriel Gomez and Peter Eggenberger. Investigations on the robustness of an evolved learning mechanism for a robot arm. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Amsterdam (IAS8), pages 818–827, 2004.
  24. Gabriel Gomez and Peter Eggenberger. Evolutionary synthesis of grasping through self-exploratory movements of a robotic hand. In Proceedings of the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2007.
  25. Gabriel Gomez, Alejandro Hernandez, and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. An adaptive neural controller for a tendon driven robotic hand. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-9), pages 298–307, 2005.
  26. Gabriel Gomez, Alejandro Hernandez, Peter Eggenberger Hotz, and Rolf Pfeifer. An adaptive learning mechanism for teaching a robot to grasp. In International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM 2005), Illmenau,Germany, 2005.
  27. Gabriel Gomez, Max Lungarella, Peter Eggenberger, Kotchiro Matsushita, and Rolf Pfeifer. Simulating development in a real robot: on the concurrent increase of sensory, motor, and neural complexity. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems. Lund University Cognitive Studies, pages 119–122, 2004.
  28. Maik Hadorn, Bo Burla, and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Towards tailored communication networks in assemblies of artificial cells. In Proceedings of the Fourth Australian Conference on Artificial Life (ACAL’09), (accepted). Springer, 2009.
  29. Maik Hadorn and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. A vesicular testbed for embryogenic evolutionary systems. In Proceedings of the Fourth Australian Conference on Artificial Life (ACAL’09), (accepted). Springer, 2009.
  30. Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Asymmetric cell division and its integration with other developmental processes for artificial evolutionary systems. In Proceedings of The Ninth Artificial Life Conference IX, 2004.
  31. Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Asymmetric cell division in artificial evolution. In Proceedings of The IEEE 2004 Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC2004), 2004.
  32. Phil Husbands and Inman Harvey, editors. Fourth European Conference of Artificial Life, Cambridge, MA, 1997. MIT Press.
  33. Akio Ishiguro, Akinobu Fujii, and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Neuromodulated control of bipedal locomotion using a polymorphic cpg circuit. Adaptive Behavior, 11(1):7–17, 2003.
  34. Akio Ishiguro, Kei Otsu, Akinobu Fujii, Yoshiki Ichikawa, Tekeshi Aoki, and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Evolving an adaptive controller for a legged-robot with dynamically-rearranging neural network. Conference of Systems of Adaptive Behavior, pages 97–105, 2000.
  35. Lukas Lichtensteiger and Peter Eggenberger. Evolving the morphology of a compound eye on a robot. In Proceedings of the Third European Workshop on Advanced Mobile Robots (Eurobot ’99),IEEE, pages 127–134, 1999.
  36. Pattie Maes, Maja J. Mataric, Jean-Arcady Meyer, Jordan Pollack, and Stewart W. Wilson, editors. From animals to animats 4: Proceedings of the fourth international conference on simulation of adaptive behavior. MIT Press, 1996.
  37. Jean-Marie Matthieu, Peter Eggenberger, Guillermina Almazan, and Helga Ginalski-Winkelmann. Anticonvulsive treatment of myelin-deficient ( mld ) mice improves survival and confirms the delayed increase of myelin basic protein.Neurochemical Pathology, 2:115–121, 1984.
  38. Shuhei Miyashita, Maik Hadorn, and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Technical proposal for an active floating element. In Proceedings of the 50th Anniversary summit of AI (ASAI50), 2006.
  39. Shuhei Miyashita, Maik Hadorn, and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Tribolon – water floating self-assembling units. In International Conference on Morpholigical Computation, Venice, Italy, 2007.
  40. Shuhei Miyashita, Maik Hadorn, and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Tribolon – water floating self-assembling units. In IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics (ICM), 2007.
  41. Shuhei Miyashita, Maik Hadorn, and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Tribolon – water floating self-assembling units. In Internatioonal Conference on Morphological Computation (ICMC)), 2007.
  42. Shuhei Miyashita, Maik Hadorn, and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Water floating self-assembling agents. In The 1st KES Symposium on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems, Wroclaw, Poland, 2007.
  43. Shuhei Miyashita and Peter Eggenberger Hotz. Self-assembly of water floating active units. In Proceedings of the IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (CEC), July 2006, In DVD-ROM., 2006.
  44. Espen Ostergaard, David J. Christensen, Peter Eggenberger, Tim Taylor, Peter Ottery, and Henrik H. Lund. Hydra: Living building blocks for self-designing artefacts. In International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN), Warsaw, Poland, pages, To Appear, 2005.
  45. Espen Ostergaard, David J. Christensen, Peter Eggenberger, Tim Taylor, Peter Ottery, and Henrik H. Lund. Hydra:from cellular biology to shape-changing artefacts. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, GmbH, volume 3696, pages 275–281, 2005.
  46. Ralf Salomon and Peter Eggenberger. Adaptation on the evolutionary time scale: A working hypothesis and basic experiments. In Proceedings of the Third Conference on Artificial Evolution97,Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany., pages 251–262, 1997.
  47. T.Kondo, A.Ishiguro, Y.Uchikawa, and P.Eggenberger. Autonomous robot control by a neural network with dynamically-rearranging function. In Proc. of the 4th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics (AROB99), pages 809–813, 1999.
  48. Seiji Tokura, Akio Ishiguro, Hiroki Kawai, and Peter Eggenberger. The effect of neuromodulation on the adaptability of evolved neurocontrollers. In European Conference of Artificial Life ECAL 2001, pages 292–295, 2001.

Teaching

Lectures

At University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

  • Projects in Artificial Intelligence 2008 / 2009
  • Advanced Artificial Intelligence 2008 / 2009
  • Advanced Artificial Intelligence AIP/AIPP01 2007
  • Artificial Intelligence and Control Theory CSE22 2006 / 2007.

    At University of Zurich, Switzerland.

      General Information

      Curriculum Vitae

      Citizenship: Swiss

      Date of birth: February 14, 1958

      Formal education

      1995 – 1999

      • Doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich Under supervision of Prof. Dr. Rolf Pfeifer (Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland), Prof. Dr. Walter Lichtensteiger (Institute of Pharmacology, University of Zurich, Switzerland), and Prof. Dr. Helmut Schauer (Software Engineering Group, Institute of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland).

      1985

      • Final examination in medicine at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

      1978 – 1985

      • Studies in Medicine at the Universities of Fribourg and Lausanne, Switzerland.

      Scientific employment

      2006 – today

      • Associate Professor for Artificial Intelligence at the Mærsk-McKinny-Møller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

      2004 – 2008

      • PostDoc position in the EU-Project PACE: Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution (IST-2003-002035).

      2001 – today

      • PostDoc position at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Institute of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland, Prof. Dr. Rolf Pfeifer.

      2001 – 2004

      • PostDoc position in the EU-Project HYDRA: Designing Building Blocks for Self-reconfigurable Artefacts (IST-2001-33060).

      1999 – 2001

      • Research position at ATR (Advanced Telecomunications Research Institute International), Kyoto, Japan.

      Scientific project leaderships

      2007 – 2009

      2005 – 2009

      2004 – 2009

      2004 – 2008

      2001 – 2004

      Companies

      1986

      • Foundation of a Software Company ”SOFTKEY” producing software for technical and medical applications. Salaried: 1986-1995.
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