Auckland University of Technology
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- Centre for Artificial
Intelligence Research (CAIR ) is one of the key research centres of the
School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
We are a small group of
researchers led by Professor Wai Yeap. Our work on robotics is aimed at
developing a series of Albots, each providing some significant insights into
how humans and animals compute representations of their spatial
environments. In the literature on spatial cognition, the latter process is
referred to as cognitive mapping and its product, a cognitive map.;
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Albots: Bots providing some significant insights into how
humans and animals compute representations of their spatial environments
- Albots are robots created specifically for the study of
cognitive maps and cognitive mapping. These robots are treated as a species
of their own and their cognitive mapping is being investigated. Much is
learned about cognitive mapping from observing how different biological
agents map their environment. It is argued that one could do likewise using
robots, provided one addresses similar problems that researchers working
with biological agents have encountered.
Thus, Albots are not robots that are created to simulate ideas about
cognitive mapping. To distinguish the two, consider the important use of
landmarks in cognitive mapping. In the simulation approach, a robot is
programmed to use certain perceived features as landmarks, primarily to
demonstrate how such information is used in a mapping process. In the
Albot’s approach, the problem itself, i.e. how landmarks are identified and
why, needs to be investigated. In order for the algorithm to be cognitively
relevant, it has to exhibit some key characteristics of landmarks use in
humans and animals. One such characteristic is that landmarks are sparse and
far between i.e. not all unique features in each view are perceived as
landmarks. How then does an Albot identify and use a landmark in its mapping
process and what does it tell us about cognitive mapping?