The MACSi project is a developmental robotics project based on the iCub humanoid robot and the Urbi open source software platform. It is funded an as ANR Blanc project from 2010 to 2012 and coordinated by the Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR) at University Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC).

The project addresses four fundamental challenges, led by four partners:

1. How can a robot learn efficient perceptual representations of its body and of external objects given initially only low-level perceptual capabilities?
   Challenge leader : ENSTA-ParisTech (Paris).
   
   
2. How can a robot learn motor representations and use them to build basic affordant reaching and manipulation skills? 
   Challenge leader : ISIR-UPMC-Paris 6 (Paris). ISIR hosts the iCub humanoid robot on which the achievements will be evaluated.
   
   
3. What guidance heuristics should be used to explore vast sensorimotor spaces in unknown changing bodies and environments?
   Challenge leader : FLOWERS team at INRIA Bordeaux (Bordeaux).
   
   
4. How can mechanisms for building efficient representations/abstractions, mechanisms for learning manipulation skills, and guidance mechanisms be integrated in the same experimental robotic architecture and reused for different robots?
   Challenge leader : GOSTAI company (Paris).