UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
		 COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM



		"Social Learning and the Development of
			 Intelligent Robots"

			     Joe Saunders
		       School of Computer Science
		       University of Hertfordshire

			5 October 2005 (Wednesday)

			  Lecture Theatre E350
		       Hatfield, College Lane Campus
			       3 - 4 pm

	       Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.
                         [Catering Permitting]

		    Everyone is Welcome to Attend
			  [Space Permitting]


Abstract:

In this talk I will be presenting some research on imitation,
observational learning and direct teaching and how these can be used to
good effect in developing robotic systems.

The background to this research considers that it is the social
dimension of behaviour that holds the key to making robots behave more
intelligently, an approach inspired from both primatological studies of
social animals and from aspects of cognitive development proposed by
the developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky.  I will discuss how the
social aspects of teaching, learning and imitation are used by some
social animals to expand their repertoire of skills.

I will present some experiments in movement imitation carried out on
physical miniature robots where the effect of changing the
observational perspective of one robot imitating the movements of
another has differing consequences and suggest that there may be a
spectrum of observational effects which result from varying both the
state and the closeness of shared context of the imitating robot.

These observational learning mechanisms are augmented with both direct
teaching (a form of self-imitation) and predictive observation in a new
robotic control architecture implemented on the same physical robots
that allows untrained human teachers to build and modify robot
behaviours.

I will conclude by briefly considering the implications of a
developmental approach in moulding robot behaviour for both the trainer
and for society, the latter now actively being considered in the new
discipline of robo-ethics.

This work is carried out in the Adaptive Systems Research Group 
under supervision of Profs. C. L. Nehaniv and K. Dautenhahn.
--
Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq