Many research works in robotics and autonomous systems are focused on getting an agent to learn to do some task such as recognizing an object or reaching a specific place. The task can be learned, but in most of these works the robot s task was predefined by the researcher. The next logical step is to project an autonomous robot that can dive n unpredictable environments. That means to investigate how robots that are capable of `growing up' through experience can be designed. Living systems, starting from a pre- structured set of functions, develop competence to better adapt to the environment all life long. They present multiple levels of organization, with elements at one level interacting and aggregating to create more complex behavior at a higher level. Many recent investigations on the spatio-temporal activity in living being showed the presence of features common to the behavior of self- organizing dynamical systems. Thus a question arises: is this chaos useful for growing up? In this paper we present and discuss that question, and we try to give some indication for a possible answer, with the aim of defining the basic features of a behavioral kernel for growing up artifacts.
Do Living Artefacts need chaos for growing up?
Giovanna Morgavi
2006
Abstract
Many research works in robotics and autonomous systems are focused on getting an agent to learn to do some task such as recognizing an object or reaching a specific place. The task can be learned, but in most of these works the robot s task was predefined by the researcher. The next logical step is to project an autonomous robot that can dive n unpredictable environments. That means to investigate how robots that are capable of `growing up' through experience can be designed. Living systems, starting from a pre- structured set of functions, develop competence to better adapt to the environment all life long. They present multiple levels of organization, with elements at one level interacting and aggregating to create more complex behavior at a higher level. Many recent investigations on the spatio-temporal activity in living being showed the presence of features common to the behavior of self- organizing dynamical systems. Thus a question arises: is this chaos useful for growing up? In this paper we present and discuss that question, and we try to give some indication for a possible answer, with the aim of defining the basic features of a behavioral kernel for growing up artifacts.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
