Ongoing Emergence: A Core Concept in Epigenetic Robotics Christopher G. Prince, Nathan A. Helder & George J. Hollich Robert White

What is Ongoing Emergence? “Creating Robots that show autonomous mental development” (Lungarella et al 2003) “Continuous development and integration of new skills” “Allow a mobile robot to incrementally progress through levels of increasingly sophisticated behaviour” (Blank, Kumar, Meeden & Marshall 2005) “Exhibit new behaviour, which in turn, becomes a precursor for successive stages of development” (Grupen, 2003)

Presentation Structure 1. Explain the six rules which determine ongoing emergence 2. Current Research Examples of Robots that have achieved this in some way Criterion that have not been satisfied so far 3. Human Infant Developmental Examples 4. Designing for Ongoing Emergence With and Without automated bootstrapping 5. Conclusions

Six Defining Criteria 1.Continuous skill acquisition Utilising current environmental resources Integrating current skills from repertoire 2.Incorporation of new skills with existing skills Iteratively increase skill set Developmental Systematicity 3.Autonomous development of values and goals Develops adaptive skills based on its own values and goals Evaluate its own behaviours

Six Defining Criteria cont 4.Bootstrapping of Initial Skills When system starts, some skills become rapidly available Pre-programme or not? 5.Stability of Skills Skills persist over an interval of time Measurable 6.Reproducibility Displays similar emergence in analogous environments

Current Research Criterion 1 Satisfied Swinging behaviour (Berthouze and Lungarella (2004)) Face tracking (Nagai et al (2003)) Criterion 3 – 6 satisfied Seth et al (2004) Darwin VIII - #3 Dominguez and Jacobs (2003) - #4 Lungarella and Berthouze (2002) - #5 Chen and Weng (2004) - #6

Best Case Study Nagai et al (2003) Tracks faces to objects person is looking at Criterion 1 Some behaviours are already pre-programmed Criterion 4 Behaviour was maintained in many experiments Criterion 6 Important point – No robots comply with Criterion 2 Leads us to view current examples as demonstrating emergence and not Ongoing Emergence

Human Infant Development Emergence of Walking Right mix of balance, head control and coordination of limbs Erratic changes in child growth Interaction of both these points and the environment Satisfies Criterion 1 Emergence of Language Initially, perceptual bias and statistical relations are used to establish meaning of words. Use known words to establish new ones – Criterion 2 Loss of one skill does not cause system to fail  Deaf children

Human Infant Development cont Object Skill Development Remember objects Perceive similarities and differences Track moving objects Object exists when it can’t be seen - Drawbridge example Takes time, builds upon each skill Represents Ongoing Emergence

Designing for Ongoing Emergence Using Pre-programmed Initial Skills Integrate skills from several different robotic systems Triesch and von der Malsburg (2001) – no focus on Criterion 2 Need to determine when skill is “stable” Needs to be represented in a similar manner to existing skills Computation mechanism would have to do this – Criterion 2 is massaged Cheng, Nagakubo and Kuniyoshi (2001) U i (t) – Motor Output V k (t) – Current sensory input a k (t) – Reliability  k (t) – Strength

Designing for Ongoing Emergence Not Using Pre-programmed Initial Skills By definition of Criterion 4, bootstrapping should be autonomous However, it needs to have some skills to start off with Authors have suggested a need for some sort of “Self” SASE – Self Aware and Self Effecting (Weng 2004) Need to differentiate between itself and other agents - What parts of the environment belongs to itself e.g. Its own limbs and the external world

Conclusions Ongoing emergence only occurs within specific domains Primarily perceptual as to whether it is ongoing emergence Linear emergence -One skill at a time -This skill then incorporated into skill set Incorporation of skills (Criterion 2) needs further research -Most important criterion?