Acquisition and Utilization of Mental Imagery Capability in Robotic Action Sequencing Tasks
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Abstract
This work presents a series of neurorobotic models underlying learning in robots. It demonstrates the way in which, during sensorimotor exploration, robots do not just gain knowledge about how to form movement primitives but also obtain a mental imagery capability. Mental imagery plays a key role in these computational models by accelerating learning processes of action sequencing tasks. The first experiment involves permitting a humanoid robot to learn how to retrieve an out-of-reach object using a provided tool. This experiment explores a phenomenon on tool use development found in human infants. In addition, it tests two hypotheses on tool use development. The second experiment extends the domain of robot learning by targeting a useful robotic application. It drives a service robot to learn to acquire knowledge of how to manipulate perceived objects based on the objects’ information and a goal from users. By means of planning, learning the sequence of actions in mind, the robots are able to learn by examining actions’ outcome without really performing actions. This allows the second model to completely exclude parts of overt movements from the training loop. The results confirm that two types of robots can complete their given tasks in a reasonable period of time. The proposed models would benefit robotic applications in terms of online learning.
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