Cognitive Anteater Robotics Laboratory

In the News

November 2022 CARL team uses robots to study brain’s ability to switch between first-person experience and global map. Findings, published in PNAS, are helping researchers understand a unique cognitive function with links to memory, navigationChen, K., Beyeler, M., and Krichmar, J.L. (2022).Xing, J., Chrastil, E.R., Nitz, D.A., and Krichmar, J.L. (2022). Linking global top-down views to first-person views in the brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119, e2202024119. 10.1073/pnas.2202024119.[pdf][News Release]
August 2022 New findings in motion perception published in the Journal of NeuroscienceChen, K., Beyeler, M., and Krichmar, J.L. (2022). Cortical Motion Perception Emerges from Dimensionality Reduction with Evolved Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity Rules. The Journal of Neuroscience 42, 5882.[pdf][News Release]
July 2022 New CARLsim release: CARLsim 6.0 is now available from our website. New features: CUDA 11 support, CMake build system, neuromodulatory features, and integration of Python LEAP. [video presentation][IJCNN paper]
July 2022 Neurorobotics book: Our book, "Neurorobotics: Connecting the Brain, Body, and Environment", is now available! [pre-order]
July 2020 IJCNN 2020 Best Paper Award: Hwu, T., Kashyap, H.J., and Krichmar, J.L. (2020). A Neurobiological Schema Model for Contextual Awareness in Robotics. Paper presented at: IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) (Glasgow)[pdf][video presentation]
March 2020 Robots to the Rescue: Students in cognitive robotics design socially assistive technology for use in crises. For more information, go to this web page.
(4/16) New Twitter account: CARL is now on Twitter. Follow @UCI_CARL for the latest news about the lab, CARLsim, and ABR.
(11/15) New CARLsim release: CARLsim 3.1.0 is now available from our website. New features include 9-parameter Izhikevich model, compartmental neuron model, CUDA7 support, CPU-only mode, and 4-th order Runge-Kutta method.
(5/15) CARLsim mailing list: An official mailinglist was added that will be dedicated to CARLsim release infos.
(2/15) New CARLsim release: CARLsim 3.0.0 is now available from our website. New features include a new user interface, improved platform compatibility (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X), CUDA6 support, additional plasticity mechanisms, a plug-in for Evolutionary Computations in Java (ECJ), an extensive user guide, and a tutorial. For a full list of features please refer to our Download page.
(8/14) Paid Undergrad Research Opening: We have a paid research opening for an undergraduate student to help out with our spiking neural network simulator, CARLsim. The student should have programming experience in C/C++ and familiarity with CUDA architectures.
(6/14) Discovery News: Neurotic robots act more human, article by Eric Niiler.
(5/14) IEEE ICRA 2014 Workshop: Neurobiologically inspired robotics: Incorporating brain processes into robots for better autonomy, June 5, 2014, 9:00-17:30, Hong Kong, China. Gallery
(4/14) Introducing Allen Brain Atlas-Driven Visualizations (ABADV): A web-based gene expression energy visualization tool. Website now online.
(2/14) UCI School of Sciences on CARL-SJR: New social sciences robot designed to help children with autism hone their social interaction skills, report by Heather Ashbach.
(2/14) CARL images and videos are now available in our Gallery and on our very own YouTube channel.
(2/14) CARLsim 2.2 is now available from our website, along with our latest publications, which highlight CARLsim's latest features. The new release features homeostatic synaptic scaling, a parameter tuning interface (PTI) library for automated tuning of spiking neural networks (SNNs) using evolutionary algorithms), improved and expanded real-time SNN vision models, and CUDA 5.0 support.
(6/12) OC Unwired on AMASE 2012: Students at UCI built an app that runs a robot car using an Android phone as its brain and eyes and can autonomously follow a moving object or vehicle. These students used robots developed by Nicolas Oros, a post-doc in the CARL lab. Nicolas mentored the students in a special course on Android Smartphone programming. The app was built as part of AMASE 2012, and the event was covered be Ian Hamilton from OC Unwired. OC Unwired article
New paper by Avery et al. on cholinergic and noradrenergic modulation of attention. See recent issue of Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience.
Avery, M.C., Nitz, D.A., Chiba, A.A., and Krichmar, J.L. (2012). Simulation of Cholinergic and Noradrenergic Modulation of Behavior in Uncertain Environments. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience 6, 1-16.[pdf]
A RC car is controlled by a IOIO board, plugged to an Android phone that receives motor commands from a computer over WIFI or 3G (WIFI in this video). The phone also sends the video and the values from the acceleration and orientation sensors back to the computer. The communication protocol between the phone and the computer is UDP. - September 22, 2011.

Video directed and produced by Nicolas Oros.
Our book is now out!!!

"Neuromorphic and Brain-Based Robots"
Edited by Jeffrey L. Krichmar and Hiroaki Wagatsuma
Cambridge University Press, August 2011.
New paper and release of our Spiking Neural Network Simulator
Richert, M., Nageswaran, J.M., Dutt, N., and Krichmar, J.L. (2011). An efficient simulation environment for modeling large-scale cortical processing. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 5, 1-15.[pdf][sourcecode]
UCI robot to aid brain research. University of California, Irvine Feature, November 4, 2009
UC research team receives National Science Foundation grant to study decision making and attention capabilities in rodents and robots. School of Social Science eNews, October 5, 2009
Presentation by Jeff Krichmar, "Using Neurally Inspired Robots to Study Brain Function", at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at University of Zurich, September 2009.
Best Paper Award at the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks to Jayram Moorkanikara Nageswaran for his paper on "Efficient Simulation of Large-Scale Spiking Neural Networks Using CUDA Graphics Processors", June 2009
Here Come the Neurobots ", H+ Magazine, pp 36-7, Summer 2009
UCI cognitive scientist on team tapped to create large-scale artificial brain, February 27, 2009
Can robots learn to think for themselves? School of Social Science eNews, September 29, 2008

Carl