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Perception through visuomotor anticipation in a mobile robot
1Cognitive Robotics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Amalienstr. 33, 80799 Munich, Germany. heiko.hoffmann@ed.ac.uk
Summary
This study shows robots can perceive spatial arrangements using sensorimotor anticipation. By predicting visual changes during simulated movements, robots can judge distances and identify dead ends.
Area of Science:
- Robotics
- Computer Vision
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Sensorimotor anticipation is theorized to underlie perceptual qualities.
- This concept has not been previously realized in mobile robots for spatial perception.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate sensorimotor anticipation for spatial perception in a mobile robot.
- To enable robots to judge distances and recognize dead ends through simulated movement.
Main Methods:
- Robot trained to predict visual input changes under movement commands.
- Simulated movement involved prediction steps using a multilayer perceptron.
- Image denoising employed patch projection onto a Gaussian mixture model manifold.
Main Results:
- The robot successfully judged distances to obstacles via simulated movement.
- The robot recognized dead ends by simulating obstacle avoidance or search algorithms.
- Simulated movements generated progressively noisy visual predictions.
Conclusions:
- Sensorimotor anticipation is a viable mechanism for spatial perception in robots.
- Robots can perform complex perceptual tasks by simulating movements.
- The developed method offers a novel approach to robot spatial awareness.
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