Towards a Scientific Foundation for Engineering Cognitive Systems

The current "Cognitive Systems" initiative under the Euro­pean Commission's "7th Framework Programme for Re­search and Technological Development (FP7)" originated shortly after the turn of the millenium when, under the heading of "Cognitive Vision", a set of nine projects was selected for funding. Its general aim is to give a new im­petus to (1) strengthening the scientific foundation for en­gineering artificial cognitive systems - i.e., artificial sys­tems that perceive and (inter-) act, based on a suitable un­derstanding of their environment; and thus to provide the ground for (2) advancing or creating enabling technologies for a variety of applications involving interaction within all sorts of environment. These pertain to, for instance, but not exclusively, robotics, assistive technologies, and language and vision based man-machine interfaces. As of November 2009 the "Cognitive Systems, Interaction, and Robotics" portfolio comprises some 100 projects, finished and ongo­ing ones, representing almost 300 MEuro in funding. This talk addresses the background, rationale and context of the European "Cognitive Systems" initiative. It high­lights key issues, current achievements and possible future directions.