Ecological Robotics

Duchon, Andrew; Warren, William H.; Kaelbling, Leslie Pack

doi:10.1177/105971239800600306

Cited by 98 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…As such, affordances comprise a powerful tool for learning, reasoning and behavioral decision making for artificial systems. Duchon et al (1998) were probably the first roboticists to recognize the relevance of certain ideas of ecological psychology for building autonomous robots. In their work they investigated the notion of direct perception by capitalizing on optical flow as a source of information for decision making using Warren's law of control (1988) to avoid obstacles in order to survive in a game of tag.…”

Section: The Role Of Affordances In Roboticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Computational models of affordance in robotics: a taxonomy and systematic classification

et al. 2017

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J. J. Gibson's concept of affordance, one of the central pillars of ecological psychology, is a truly remarkable idea that provides a concise theory of animal perception predicated on environmental interaction. It is thus not surprising that this idea has also found its way into robotics research as one of the underlying theories for action perception. The success of the theory in this regard has meant that existing research is both abundant and diffuse by virtue of the pursuit of multiple different paths and techniques with the common goal of enabling robots to learn, perceive and act upon affordances. Up until now there has existed no systematic investigation of existing work in this field. Motivated by this circumstance, in this article we begin by defining a taxonomy for computational models of affordances rooted in a comprehensive analysis of the most prominent theoretical ideas of import in the field. Subsequently, after performing a systematic literature review, we provide a classification of existing research within our proposed taxonomy. Finally, by both quantitatively and qualitatively assessing the data resulting from the classification process, we highlight gaps in the research terrain and outline open questions for the investigation of affordances in robotics that we believe will help inform future work, prioritize research goals, and potentially advance the field towards greater robot autonomy.Prepared using sagej.cls [Version: 2015/06/09 v1.01]

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Section: The Role Of Affordances In Roboticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Computational models of affordance in robotics: a taxonomy and systematic classification

et al. 2017

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“…Since the behaviour of human beings depends on the environment in which they live what observable and measurable aspects of the robots', to understand human behaviour scientists must simulate in the computer not only human beings but also their natural and social environment [4]. And they not only simulated laboratory experiments but also simulated ecological experiments in which they vary the natural and social environment that their human robots live and see how the robots' behaviour depends on the particular environment in which they live.…”

Section: Human Robots As a New Science Of Human Beingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human, Not Humanoid, Robots

Parisi¹

2017

Robotics - Legal, Ethical and Socioeconomic Impacts

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Robots that resemble human beings can be useful artefacts (humanoid robots) or they can be a new way of expressing scientific theories about human beings and human societies (human robots), and while humanoid robots must necessarily be physically realized, human robots may be just simulated in a computer. If the simulated robots do everything that human beings do, the theory which has been used to construct the robots explains human behaviour and human societies. This chapter is dedicated to human robots and it describes a number of individual and social human phenomena that have already been replicated by constructing simulated human robots and simulated robotic societies. At the end of the chapter, we briefly discuss some of the problems that human robots will pose to human beings.Keywords: human robots, humanoid robots, science, technology Human robots as a new science of human beings"Robot" is an ambiguous word. It has two different meanings. Robots can be physical artefacts with practical applications and economic value or they can be a new science of human beings. For robots as practical artefacts, success is that there are people who are disposed to spend their money to buy them. For robots as science, success is to construct robots that do everything that human beings do, because only if scientists are able to construct robots that do everything that human beings do, they will finally understand human beings. Since practically useful artefacts that look like human beings and do some of the things that human beings do are called "humanoid" robots, to make the distinction explicit, we will call robots as science "human" robots. In this chapter, we will be concerned with human, not humanoid, robots.While humanoid robots necessarily are physical robots, human robots may be just simulated in a computer. In fact, human robots are based on the general assumption that the best way © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.for science to understand X is to simulate X in a computer. If, when the simulation runs in the computer, its results correspond to what scientists empirically know about X, they are entitled to conclude that the theory incorporated in the computer program captures the mechanisms and processes which underlie X and, therefore, it explains X. Computers can be useful to science in many other ways but they are a true scientific revolution if they are used to express scientific theories in a novel way. So far, scientific theories have been expressed using mathematical symbols or using words. Physicists express their theories using mathematical symbols. Scientists who study human beings express their theories by using words-the only exception is economics but economics is not a science but an applied discipline-and words are a problem for scie...

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“…Aiming at simple 3D control strategies that can fit any small translating flying robots with limited processing power, we propose to follow a reactive paradigm where perception is directly linked to action without intermediary cognitive layers [19,21,22,23]. Since optic flow can be turned into proximity information as seen previously, the simplest way of achieving reactive behaviours such as obstacle avoidance, ground following or lateral stabilization is to linearly combine a set of derotated optic-flow sensors into rolling and pitching commands [24].…”

Section: Vision-based Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerial Locomotion in Cluttered Environments

Floreano¹,

Zufferey²,

Klaptocz³

et al. 2016

Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics

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Many environments where robots are expected to operate are cluttered with objects, walls, debris, and different horizontal and vertical structures. In this chapter, we present four design features that allow small robots to rapidly and safely move in 3 dimensions through cluttered environments: a perceptual system capable of detecting obstacles in the robot's surroundings, including the ground, with minimal computation, mass, and energy requirements; a flexible and protective framework capable of withstanding collisions and even using collisions to learn about the properties of the surroundings when light is not available; a mechanism for temporarily perching to vertical structures in order to monitor the environment or communicate with other robots before taking off again; and a self-deployment mechanism for getting in the air and perform repetitive jumps or glided flight. We conclude the chapter by suggesting future avenues for integration of multiple features within the same robotic platform.

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Ecological Robotics

Cited by 98 publications

References 40 publications

Computational models of affordance in robotics: a taxonomy and systematic classification

Computational models of affordance in robotics: a taxonomy and systematic classification

Human, Not Humanoid, Robots

Aerial Locomotion in Cluttered Environments

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