Simple Synthetic Memories of Robotic Touch

Abstract

It has been previously demonstrated in robots that the mimicking of functional characteristics of biologic memory can be beneficial for providing accurate learning and recognition in circumstances of social human-robot-interaction. The effective encoding of social and physical salient features has been demonstrated through the use of Bayesian Latent Variable Models as abstractions of memories (Simple Synthetic Memories). In this work, we explore the capabilities of formation and recall of tactile memories associated to the encoding of geometric and spatial qualities. Compression and pattern separation are evaluated against the use of raw data in a nearest neighbour regression model, obtaining a substantial improvement in accuracy for prediction of geometric properties of the stimulus. Additionally, pattern completion is assessed with the generation of 'imagined touch' streams of data showing similarities to real world tactile observations. The use of this model for tactile memories offers the potential for robustly perform sensorimotor tasks in which the sense of touch is involved.