Festo
ThoughtStorms Wiki
Context : OnRobots
Amazing German robotics company : https://www.festo.com/
Their "Bionic Learning Network" loves to take inspiration from the natural world with a range of FlyingRobots, ornithopters and other ElectricSheep : https://www.festo.com/group/en/cms/10156.htm
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Quora Answer : What are the coolest artificial intelligence companies (startups or otherwise?)
Personally, I think the coolest company on Earth has to be Festo.
Of course, Festo are more about bio-inspired engineering and artificial muscles than what we think of as AI. (Abstract, reasoning, information processing, calculation etc.)
But actually the most striking developments in AI in the next 10 years or so are going to be in robotics. My bet is that we'll continue the re-evaluation of the field that began with people like Rodney Brooks, and start to see that a well engineered and integrated physical body is as much part of "intelligence" as symbolic computation. This "physical intelligence" will include bodies that are not merely fantastically well engineered and smooth actuators, but composed of multiple layers of sensors, and localized tight-feedback loops.
The most exciting and cutting edge AI research will be in designing such complex "subsumption architectures" consisting of multiple layers of sensors and actuators that add up to sophisticated bodily behaviour and interaction with the human world.