Biohistory Journal, Winter, 2002

Research: Index > Humanoid Science - How can we find out a new understanding of human intelligence?

Humanoid Science - How can we find out a new understanding of human intelligence?

Minoru Asada, Professor, Department of Adaptive Machine Systems, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University

"Robots can't do anything that isn't written in their programs. They're just machines!" We are likely to think this because the robots we've seen have only the intelligence given to them by their designer. Newer robots, however, acquire intelligence by actively testing their external reality, just as if they were living creatures. Intelligence does not arise without an environment.

Acquiring a body schema by learning the map of interactive sensation

Different behaviors require knowledge of the relationship between one’s own body and the outside world. To understand this process, we created a robot with stereoscopic cameras for their sense of sight, tactile sensors in their hands, and attitude sensors in their neck and arms. We then conduct research into the process of how they acquire a schema of their body surface.     When a robot moves repeatedly and happens to touch something, not only the tactile sensors, but also the other sensors convey information to the information integration unit inside the robot. This information includes the state of its arms and the light that enters its eyes. If at this time there are units receiving several inputs simultaneously, this information is augmented and connections are made between the input information. The mutual referencing among the different sensors enables the acquisition of different physical expressions.     The process in which the spaces with different aspects, created by different sensations, complement each other to express the body’s surface is believed to be a model for psychophysiology. We want to create a new concept for robot design and link this to our understanding of human beings.

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