Embodied and Communicating Agents

The project proposes visonary and high risk research that will provide better understanding of the role of communication in collections of embodied and situated agents using the methodological and theoretical tools of complex systems science and computer science. We aim at studying how communication arises, what different types of communication systems there are or can be, what the different pre-conditions are that must be satisfied for the emergence of different types of communication systems, what kind of performances at the collective level are made possible by different communication systems. The project will investigate basic properties of different communication systems, from simple communication systems in animals to human language and technology-supported human communication, to clarify the nature of existing communication systems and to provide ideas for designing new technologies based on collections of embodied and communicating artefacts.