Machine Wilderness Glossary
acclimation adapting to present environmental conditions
adaptation within-species evolutionary response to a particular often new environment
adaptive radiation occurs in nature where conditions appear to favour unusually high rates of speciation, like oceanic archipelagos in ecology and long term research programmes and budgets in robotics
augmented ecology the study of how nature is going online
algorithmic landscape
allometry size related differences in behaviour or life cycle events, for example battery size and weight are a well-known limiting factors to robotic behaviour
see computational overhang
animal as platform the organism seen as a base for added functionalities
see platform diverse body
background subtraction
behavioural code software encoding robotic behaviour and phenology
behavioural signatures patterns in behaviour of animals in ecological studies collected through remote sensing technologies
see libraries of signatures
bionics also known as biomimetics, biognosis or biomimicry is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology
see biorobotics
biorobotics a study of how to make robots that emulate or simulate living biological organisms mechanically or chemically
computational overhang refers to any situation in which new algorithms can suddenly and dramatically exploit existing computational power far more efficiently than before
conspecific / intraspecific
conformance / regulatory
conservation algorithm
conservation drone
convergent evolution
cyberpoaching hunting endangered species through GPS data in online media (Flickr, Instagram) or by hacking GPS based trackers used in scientific research
dark biodiversity a term coined by Nigel Pitman reflecting the problem of dark matter in astrophysics; some landscapes are so vast and biodiverse that they are fundamentally unknowable, organisms live and die at densities below our capacity to research or even see
drive power the energy source or sources for the robot actuators
emergent behaviour a complicated resultant behaviour that emerges from the repeated operation of simple underlying behaviours
epizoic media refers to the rich sensor sets carried by animals that have evolved from basic GPS and data-loggers onwards
evolutionary acceleration where evolutionary transformation rate is increased
see hypermorphosis
evolvability concerning any system — a society or culture, for example, that has evolvable characteristics and the different rates of evolutionary change they contain. For example: the use of tools within a culture may show observable evolvability -from stones to drones- at a timescale at which human physiology has remained nearly the same.
faraday forest data refugia, cryptogeography
farmerless landscape
forward chaining a process in which events or received data are considered by an entity to intelligently adapt its behaviour
prototyping habitat
hypermorphosis
info-chemicals
IoO internet of organisms
see connected ecosystem
kinematics the study of motion, as applied to robots
library of signatures capturing a wide range of phenology of an organism through sensor technology to form a database of behavioural signatures
life-history evolution
machine wilderness
maximum envelope (space), the volume of space encompassing the maximum designed movements of all robot parts including the end-effector, workpiece, and attachments
platform diverse body identity routed across the biosphere, cybersphere, and virtual environments see animal as platform
population enrichment a population is studied before and after addition of
individuals
prototype
qualia
robochory the dispersal of plant seeds by machines, both externally or internally by digestion, adapted from zoochory which relates to dispersal by animals
robot Darwinism a term coined by battling robot pioneer Pete Abrahamson, has left the field with only three major robot archetypes:
- lifters which had wedged sides and could use forklift-like prongs to flip pure wedges.
- spinners which were smooth, circular wedges with blades on their bottom side for disabling and breaking lifters.
- pure wedges which could still flip spinners.
semiotics incl alarm calls chemical reception
semiosphere
smart collar next generation GPS trackers for pets, farm animals or wild animals
see behavioural signatures
slow speed control a mode of robot motion control where the velocity of the robot is limited to allow organisms sufficient time either to withdraw the hazardous motion or stop the robot
staged authenticity the staging of naturalistic behaviour to create an impression of authenticity, originally stated by Dean MacCannell in relation to tourism
subsumption architecture a robot architecture that uses a modular, bottom-up design beginning with the least complex behavioural tasks
swarm robotics is to robotics what population ecology is to animals
uncanny valley a hypothesized zone in which humanoid robot behavior and appearance begin to approach that of actual humans, but are still missing vital elements, to the point that these mimicked actions or images cause revulsion
unmanned conservation
wired wilderness
method:
1 try it yourself, hands-on 2 work in situ 3 talk to the specialists and the outsiders