Robotics Flashcards
Robot video
acting and performing actions in the physical world is really hard for robots to even keep their balance and move
Moravec’s Paradox
sensorimotor and perception skills (skills that involve an interac- tion between the internal and external) require enormously more computational resources than abstract reasoning
also shows why the robot video went the way it did, why it was hard for the robots to do so
traditional cognitive approach
think of the mind as separate from the environment, which provides inputs and ouputs
in this view, the evnrionment is not see as any meaningful part within our cognition – it is separate
embodied cognition
think of the mind and environment as a single enviornment
“simple” embodied cognition
our cognitive systems are made to operate in a physical world
“medium” embodied cognition
states of the world and our bodies shape our thoughts in a fundamental way
modal representations
one branch of embodied cognition argues that mostall of our semantic representations are modal: they are tied to the sensory and motor information associated with that concept
radnical embodied cognition
the mind cannot be meaningfully studied in isolation from the world
Tucker and Ellis 1989
task: is this object upside down or not?
can answer with a button press by left or right hand
based on which side the handle of the object is on, and which hand you answer with, the time it takes to respond changes.
when the handle is on the left side of the screen, you are faster when responding with your left hand (and vice versa)
when you see the object, there is an automatic representation that shows up in your sensory and motor systems that creates a plan for interacting with the object - your internal system intrinsically has an motor reaction
the more abstract the concepts, the more we relate them to the physical world - building an analogy to what we experience in the physical world
time in spacial representation
if today is in the center, we would think of yesterday as to the left or above today. Time is intrinsically spatial
Fuhrman and Boroditsky 2010
if the earlier button is on the left, it is a lot easier for people/they respond faster
something is inherent in the way we represent time, earlier in a sequesnce “should” be on the left
if earlier is on the right, we have to “convert” from our internal representation of time (for other non english speakers this may be different)
Program a robot to:
Move forward whenever possible
If stuck, back up a bit and turn a random amount
What task is this robot accomplishing?
In this specific environment (with this specific robot body, blocks of this specific size), this robot has the function of helping to pile up blocks
If obstacle in left rear or right front, turn left If obstacle in right rear or left front, turn right
In a maze, this robot will follow walls to solve a maze
If we want to study this system at Marr’s highest (functional/com- putational) level, it is only possible when considering the robot + environment
Consistent with “radical” embodied cognition: we can’t study these cognitive agents in isolation
can’t study this by just analyzing one system, you have to think about the robot AND environment. what is going on in the world around it? how is the external world changing as the internal processes go on? etc
off-loading cognition
these examples show that we can get away with very limited cognition on board the robots
rather than trying to represent the external world, robots can carry out a simple process until task is complete ( more repriiton and longer to complete task)
humans can use their enviornment strategically in order to carry out cognitive processes
Reser et al., 2021
Australian Aboriginal memory technique:
associate information with physical locations, then walk back through these locations to remember. offloads a bit of the mental burden onto the location (memory cue tool)
ie for telling a particular story: associating it with a particular environment / spot in the world
people had to memorize butterflies in this experiment, they did it by associating them with the spot they find them in
dynamic coupling
dynamic = ongoing process over time
coupling = within your mind
stuff within your mind changes which changes how you view the world, but also the changing world impacts what is in your mind
embodied cognition can be an ongoing interplay between an angent and the environment
