The cultural origins of human cognition

2007 Special Issue: Optimization and applications of echo state networks with leaky- integrator neurons

Training recurrent neural networks is hard. Recently it has however been discovered that it is possible to just construct a random recurrent topology, and only train a single linear readout layer. State-of- the-art performance can easily be achieved with this setup, called Reservoir Computing. The idea can even be broadened by stating that any high di- mensional, driven dynamic system, operated in the correct dynamic regime can be used as a temporal 'kernel' which makes it possible to solve complex tasks using just linear post-processing techniques. This tutorial will give an overview of current research on theory, applica- tion and implementations of Reservoir Computing.

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/416607/file/447949.pdf

An overview of reservoir computing: theory, applications and implementations

A review of verbal and non-verbal human-robot interactive communication

In this paper, an overview of human-robot interactive communication is presented, covering verbal as well as non-verbal aspects of human-robot interaction. Following a historical introduction, and motivation towards fluid human-robot communication, ten desiderata are proposed, which provide an organizational axis both of recent as well as of future research on human-robot communication. Then, the ten desiderata are examined in detail, culminating to a unifying discussion, and a forward-looking conclusion.

A Review of Verbal and Non-Verbal Human-Robot Interactive Communication

Being part of the RoboCup initiative, the ROBOCUP@HOME league targets the development and deployment of autonomous service and assistive robot technology being essential for future personal domestic applications. The domain of domestic service and assistive robotics implicates a wide range of possible problems. The primary reasons for this include the large amount of uncertainty in the dynamic and non-standardized environments of the real world, and the related human interaction. Furthermore, the application orientation requires a large effort towards high level integration combined with a demand for general robustness of the systems. This article details the need for interdisciplinary community effort to iteratively identify related problems, to define benchmarks, to test and, finally, to solve the problems. The concepts and the implementation of the ROBOCUP@HOME initiative as a combination of scientific exchange and competition is presented as an efficient method to accelerate and focus technological and scientific progress in the domain of domestic service robots. Finally, the progress in terms of performance increase in the benchmarks and technological advancements is evaluated and discussed.

https://kbsg.rwth-aachen.de/~schiffer/pubs/jissi2009home.pdf

RoboCup@Home: Scientific Competition and Benchmarking for Domestic Service Robots

RoboCup@Home

One of the long term objectives of robotics and artificial cognitive systems is that robots will increasingly be capable of interacting in a cooperative and adaptive manner with their human counterparts in open-ended tasks that can change in real-time. In such situations, an important aspect of the robot behavior will be the ability to acquire new knowledge of the cooperative tasks by observing humans. At least two significant challenges can be identified in this context. The first challenge concerns development of methods to allow the characterization of human actions such that robotic systems can observe and learn new actions, and more complex behaviors made up of those actions. The second challenge is associated with the immense heterogeneity and diversity of robots and their perceptual and motor systems. The associated question is whether the identified methods for action perception can be generalized across the different perceptual systems inherent to distinct robot platforms. The current research addresses these two challenges. We present results from a cooperative human-robot interaction system that has been specifically developed for portability between different humanoid platforms. Within this architecture, the physical details of the perceptual system (e.g. video camera vs IR video with reflecting markers) are encapsulated at the lowest level. Actions are then automatically characterized in terms of perceptual primitives related to motion, contact and visibility. The resulting system is demonstrated to perform robust object and action learning and recognition on two distinct robotic platforms. Perhaps most interestingly, we demonstrate that knowledge acquired about action recognition with one robot can be directly imported and successfully used on a second distinct robot platform for action recognition. This will have interesting implications for the accumulation of shared knowledge between distinct heterogeneous robotic systems.

Towards a platform-independent cooperative human-robot interaction system: I. Perception

To put more emphasis on real-world problems, the authors propose to extend the RoboCup competitions. In order to foster progress in the desired abilities the authors propose to expand the existing challenges by a set of simple tests. The passing of the entire set should lead to robots that are capable of working both autonomously and in cooperation with humans in different realistic scenarios. Robots from all RoboCup leagues but also from outside of RoboCup should be allowed to participate. The new league especially aims at fostering the development of practical solutions and applications for supporting humans in everyday life.

/pdf/robocup-x-a-proposal-for-a-new-league-where-robocup-goes-1spxccb6rs.pdf

RoboCup X: a proposal for a new league where robocup goes real world

Robot hardware and software.- Perception and action.- Robotic cognition and learning.- Multi-robot systems.- Human-robot interaction.- Education and edutainment.- Applications.

Tijn van der Zant

Papers

RoboCup@Home: Scientific Competition and Benchmarking for Domestic Service Robots

RoboCup@Home

Towards a platform-independent cooperative human-robot interaction system: I. Perception

RoboCup X: a proposal for a new league where robocup goes real world

RoboCup 2012: Robot Soccer World Cup XVI