Recently, the six-legged robot HECTOR was put into operation. This hexapod is characterized by its 18 elastic joint drives, a high level of sensorisation and a decentralized control strategy for walking. This presentation will introduce the hardware structure of the system which includes, amongst other details, also the integrated sensorized elastomer coupling (serial elastic element) in the joint drives as well as the control framework for walking. The talk will also give a perspective view on the research questions which are addressed by the CITEC (Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology) -consortium within the HECTOR-project.

Weakly electric fish like Gnathonemus petersii are able to locate objects in their vicinity by means of a self-generated electric field. The field lines are de-tuned by the presence of objects like prey or obstacles. The fish perceives the (de-tuned) electric field by means of receptor organs (called mormyromasts). In a new cooperative project between Bielefeld University and the University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule) Bielefeld, a sensor system is developed which uses an abstraction of this concept to locate objects in fluids and to determine additional features of these objects. The talk will be a short appetizer and give insights in the cooperation between Fachhochschule and University in Bielefeld.