An Embodied Model for Sensorimotor Grounding and Grounding Transfer: Experiments With Epigenetic Robots

Abstract

The grounding of symbols in computational models of linguistic abilities is one of the fundamental properties of psychologically plausible cognitive models. In this article, we present an embodied model for the grounding of language in action based on epigenetic robots. Epigenetic robotics is one of the new cognitive modeling approaches to modeling autonomous mental development. The robot model is based on an integrative vision of language in which linguistic abilities are strictly dependent on and grounded in other behaviors and skills. It uses simulated robots that learn through imitation the names of basic actions. Robots also learn higher order action concepts through the process of grounding transfer. The simulation demonstrates how new, higher order behavioral abilities can be autonomously built on previously grounded basic action categories following linguistic interaction with human users.

ACT-R/E: An Embodied Cognitive Architecture for Human-Robot Interaction

“…One reason that it has been difficult to build computational accounts of embodied theories and phenomena is that they, by necessity, require a configurable body. In our opinion, robots are a promising way of filling this void (Pezzulo et al, 2011;Cangelosi & Riga, 2006;Tikhanoff, Cangelosi, & Metta, 2011).…”

Vision, action and language unified through embodiment

“…The linguistic abilities of an artificial agent whose behavior is established by a computational model is strictly dependent on, and grounded in, other perceptual and motor skills (MacWhinney, 1998;Cangelosi & Riga, 2006;Cangelosi & Parisi, 2002). Such a grounded and embodied approach to language design is consistent with the theories of the grounding of language discussed above.…”

Swing it to the left, swing it to the right: enacting flexible spatial language using a neurodynamic framework

“…Moreover, because spatial language can be used to guide others' behaviors, this representational integration also extends into the motor processes controlling behavior. Considered together, these aspects highlight the need to ground language in the neural dynamics underlying scene representations in a manner that permits flexible manipulation of the symbolic units (for related discussion see also Glenberg and Robertson 2000, Barsalou 1999, Pfeifer and Bongard 2006, Glenberg 1997, Cangelosi and Riga 2006, Harnad 1990.…”