Chapter Twelve

1
Chapter Twelve

• Robotics The Ultimate Intelligent Agents

2
Defining Robotic Function

• A mechanical entity that can function
  autonomously, by which is meant
• Without recourse to a human operator.
• Able to adapt to a changing environment.
• Continue to function when one of its own less
  important parts break.
• Move within and change its world circumstances.

3
Historical Highlights

• 400 B.C. A wooden dove that flaps its wings.
• 1500s Robots that play music
• 1600s More sophisticated mechanisms.
• Late 19th century Remote control.
• Early 20th century Electronic devices are
  introduced.
• 1940s Industrial telemanipulator for radioactive
  applications.
• 1966 Shakey, the first AI robot.
• 1970s Increasingly sophisticated robots for
  semi-autonomous exploration of remote surfaces.
• 2000 Lamprey brain is connected to sensors to
  control a robot.
• 2005 Duke/Cal Tech scientists explore techniques
  that will enable humans to operate exclusively
  through brain signals.

4
Evaluating Robotic Potentials

• For fully autonomous performance approaching
  human capability, robots would need to
  understand speech, see, plan, reason, represent a
  world model, learn. These are truly awesome
  accomplishments.

5
Biological Foundations of Robotic Paradigms

• The ability to quantify human behavior is a
  foundation for being able to emulate
  intelligence.
• Lorenz/Tinbergen codify the way in which an
  animal acquires and organizes behavior.
• Starting from a sequence of innate behaviors
  (e.g., feeding), new behaviors can evolve (e.g.,
  hunting is composed of searching, stalking,
  chasing, etc.).

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Evaluation of Lorenz/Tinbergen

• Their model fails to provide adequate explanation
  for dynamic aspects of behavior. It reflects a
  top-down philosophy and does not sufficiently
  account for perceptiona behavioral releaser.

7
Action-Perception Cycle of Animal Behavior

• Neisser/Gibson provide a dynamic model of human
  behavior.

Changes Its Perception (new viewpoint)
Interaction With the Environment
Agent Acts
Modifies Actions and Behaviors
Perception of World Changes
8
Evaluation of the Biological Basis of Robots

• Psychologists cannot account for a number of
  phenomena that need to be resolved before
  transfer to mechanical intelligent agents
  concurrent behavior conflicts, missed affordances
  (some behaviors may not be described simply by
  sensory-action activities), learning (not fully
  resolved among cognitive scientists).

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Foundations of Robotic Paradigms

• A paradigm is a philosophy for working with a
  class of problems.
• Each of the prominent robotic paradigms includes
  a series of primitive functions sense, plan,
  act.
• Sense convert elements of an environment into
  information used by other parts of the system.
• Plan elements corresponding to human reasoning
  capabilities.
• Act includes the motor and activation elements
  of robotic environments.

10
Evaluation of Paradigm Foundations

• The ability to learn is a biological feature of
  more advanced animals. A growing number of
  Roboticists believe that a new primitive needs to
  be added to robotic architecturesa learn
  process. There are presently no formal
  organizations in which such a process is fully
  integrated.

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The Hierarchical Robotic Paradigm
Creates a model develops a plan to complete a
task produces commands for the actuators
Includes sensors and possible feature extraction
Controls actuators
SENSE
PLAN
ACT
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Evaluation of the Hierarchical Paradigm

• PLAN reflects the way people think about an
  action. However, not all action is preceded by
  thinking. Humans may have a repertoire of default
  schemes for completing a task.
• This model presupposes a single global model of
  the world. Generic global world models do not
  handle surprises very well.

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Reactive Paradigm (also known as Subsumption)
A fundamental behavior
Complex, intelligent behaviorsa combination of
simple behaviors
Behavior 1
Sensor 1
Behavior 2
Behavior 3
Sensor 2
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Evaluation of the Reactive Paradigm

• Whether such architectures can be ported (reused)
  to new applications is an open question. They are
  not easily transferred to domains where reasoning
  about resource allocation is essential.
• Lack redundancy (e.g., a second of backup sensing
  system).
• Assemblages of behaviors depend heavily on the
  programmer.

15
The Hybrid Paradigm

• Designs characterized by a combination of
  reactive behaviors and planning.
• The PLAN component includes a deliberative
  process.
• Behavior includes reflexive as well as innate and
  learned behaviors (skills).
• Assemblages of behaviors sequenced over time,
  rather than primitives.
• Planning can include path planning, map making.
• Hybrids also include performance modeling.

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Evaluation of Hybrid Architectures

• Full evaluation is difficult because Hybrid
  organizations are still evolving.
• There is no currently predominant architecture
  each must be considered in light of its
  application.
• Are Hybrid designs really unique or merely
  variations of Hierarchical architectures?
• Can suffer from limitations of computing capacity
  and an associated paucity of planning
  intelligence.

17
Overall Evaluation of Robots(Two views from the
same institution)

• The body, this mass of biomolecules, is a
  machine that acts according to a set of
  specifiable rules . . . I believe myself and my
  children all to be mere machines
• Rodney Brooks, Director of the MIT AI Laboratory

• The reason there are no humanlike robots is not
  that the very idea of a mechanical mind is
  misguided. It is that the engineering problems
  that we humans solve as we see and walk and plan
  and make it through the day are far more
  challenging than landing on the moon or
  sequencing the human genome. Nature, once again,
  has found ingenious solutions that human
  engineers cannot yet duplicate.
• Steven Pinker, Director of the Center for
  Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT