Abstract
Since the early decades of the XX century, robots have been often used as experimental platforms for the study of animal and human behaviour. This article offers an overview of these epistemic uses with a special focus on contemporary biorobotics and bionics. Some experimental procedures for the study of the behaviour of animals and humans, involving fully artificial and hybrid bionic systems, are reconstructed on the basis of examples drawn from the scientific literature. Some conditions under which they can produce genuine knowledge about living systems are identified and discussed.
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Datteri, E. (2021). Robots and Bionic Systems as Experimental Platforms for the Study of Animal and Human Behaviour. In: Chiodo, S., Schiaffonati, V. (eds) Italian Philosophy of Technology. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 35. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54522-2_12
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