The origins of syntax in visually grounded robotic agents

doi:10.1016/S0004-3702(98)00066-6

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The origins of syntax in visually grounded robotic agents

Journal Article•DOI•

The origins of syntax in visually grounded robotic agents

01 Aug 1998-Artificial Intelligence (Elsevier)-Vol. 103, Iss: 1, pp 133-156

TL;DR: An experimental setup is introduced for concretising and validating specific mechanisms based on a set of principles and a general architecture that may explain how language and meaning may originate and complexify in a group of physically grounded distributed agents.

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About: This article is published in Artificial Intelligence.The article was published on 1998-08-01 and is currently open access. It has received 169 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Lexicon & Syntax.

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Book Chapter•DOI•

Language as a Complex Adaptive System

[...]

Luc Steels

18 Sep 2000

TL;DR: It is shown that five principles gleaned from biology are crucial: reinforcement learning, self-organisation, selectionism, co-evolution through structural coupling, and level formation.

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Abstract: The paper surveys recent work on modeling the origins of communication systems in groups of autonomous distributed agents. It is shown that five principles gleaned from biology are crucial: reinforcement learning, self-organisation, selectionism, co-evolution through structural coupling, and level formation.

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352 citations

Cites background from "The origins of syntax in visually g..."

...In the experiments reported in [17] the agents start from a visual image captured by a camera....
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...Several researchers, most notably Batali [2], Kirby [7] and Steels [16],[17] have been conducting experiments to explain how languages with the grammatical complexity of human natural languages may emerge....
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...In the Batali experiment the (unrealistic) assumption is made that speaker and hearer share meaning independent of language, but other experiments (such as [17]) do not make this assumption and agents only get indirect feedback whether the meaning they guessed was the right one....
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Journal Article•DOI•

An Experimental Study of the Emergence of Human Communication Systems

[...]

Bruno Galantucci¹•Institutions (1)

University of Connecticut¹

10 Sep 2005-Cognitive Science

TL;DR: Communication systems emerged and developed rapidly during the games, integrating the use of explicit signs with information implicitly available to players and silent behavior-coordinating procedures, suggesting sign forms are perceptually distinct, easy to produce, and tolerant to variations.

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347 citations

Cites background from "The origins of syntax in visually g..."

...Keywords: Human communication; Social cognition; Situated cognition; Emergence of communication...
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...However, although current simulations are designed to model ever richer aspects of human communication (e.g., de Boer & Vogt, 1999; Hazlehurst & Hutchins, 1998; Oudeyer, in press; Steels, 1998), there remains a wide gulf in behavioral complexity between artificial agents and humans....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Can robots make good models of biological behaviour

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Barbara Webb¹•Institutions (1)

University of Stirling¹

01 Dec 2001-Behavioral and Brain Sciences

TL;DR: It is argued that in building robot models biological relevance is more effective than loose biological inspiration; multiple levels can be integrated; that generality cannot be assumed but might emerge from studying specific instances; abstraction is better done by simplification than idealisation; accuracy can be approached through iterations of complete systems; that the model should be able to match and predict target behaviour; and that a physical medium can have significant advantages.

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Abstract: How should biological behaviour be modelled? A relatively new approach is to investigate problems in neuroethology by building physical robot models of biological sensorimotor systems. The explication and justification of this approach are here placed within a framework for describing and comparing models in the behavioural and biological sciences. First, simulation models – the representation of a hypothesis about a target system – are distinguished from several other relationships also termed “modelling” in discussions of scientific explanation. Seven dimensions on which simulation models can differ are defined and distinctions between them discussed:1. Relevance: whether the model tests and generates hypotheses applicable to biology.2. Level: the elemental units of the model in the hierarchy from atoms to societies.3. Generality: the range of biological systems the model can represent.4. Abstraction: the complexity, relative to the target, or amount of detail included in the model.5. Structural accuracy: how well the model represents the actual mechanisms underlying the behaviour.6. Performance match: to what extent the model behaviour matches the target behaviour.7. Medium: the physical basis by which the model is implemented.No specific position in the space of models thus defined is the only correct one, but a good modelling methodology should be explicit about its position and the justification for that position. It is argued that in building robot models biological relevance is more effective than loose biological inspiration; multiple levels can be integrated; that generality cannot be assumed but might emerge from studying specific instances; abstraction is better done by simplification than idealisation; accuracy can be approached through iterations of complete systems; that the model should be able to match and predict target behaviour; and that a physical medium can have significant advantages. These arguments reflect the view that biological behaviour needs to be studied and modelled in context, that is, in terms of the real problems faced by real animals in real environments.

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339 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

The synthetic modeling of language origins

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Luc Steels¹•Institutions (1)

Vrije Universiteit Brussel¹

01 Jan 1997-Evolution of Communication

TL;DR: The main approaches are described and some example experiments from the domains of the evolution of communication, phonetics, lexicon formation, and syntax are discussed.

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Abstract: This paper surveys work on the computational modeling of the origins and evolution of language. The main approaches are described and some example experiments from the domains of the evolution of communication, phonetics, lexicon formation, and syntax are discussed.

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336 citations

Cites background from "The origins of syntax in visually g..."

...23 ported by Steels [ 66 ]. The experimental setup which acts as the source of meaning, involves two robot ” heads”which can track moving objects with a camera (figure 5). Moving objects are detected based on difference matching of two consecutive images and each head attempts to maintain the moving object in the center of vision by rotation....
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Proceedings Article•DOI•

The Spontaneous Self-organization of an Adaptive Language

[...]

Luc Steels¹•Institutions (1)

Vrije Universiteit Brussel¹

01 Jan 1999

TL;DR: Trabajo presentado al Workshop Machine Intelligence 15: "Intelligent Agents" celebrado en el St. Catherine's College de Oxford (UK) en julio de 1995.

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Abstract: Trabajo presentado al Workshop Machine Intelligence 15: "Intelligent Agents" celebrado en el St. Catherine's College de Oxford (UK) en julio de 1995.

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320 citations

Cites background from "The origins of syntax in visually g..."

...The lexicon formation and ontology creation mechanisms have been ported to mobile robots [ ?] and to two ”talking heads” [18]....
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References

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Book•

The Language Instinct

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Steven Pinker¹•Institutions (1)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology¹

01 Jan 1994

TL;DR: In this "extremely valuable book, very informative, and very well written" (Noam Chomsky), one of the greatest thinkers in the field of linguistics explains how language works -how people, ny making noises with their mouths, can cause ideas to arise in other people's minds as mentioned in this paper.

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Abstract: In this "extremely valuable book, very informative, and very well written" (Noam Chomsky), one of the greatest thinkers in the field of linguistics explains how language works--how people, ny making noises with their mouths, can cause ideas to arise in other people's minds.

...read moreread less

4,696 citations

Book•

The Major Transitions in Evolution

[...]

John Maynard Smith

01 Jan 1995

TL;DR: This book discusses the origins of societies, development and evolution, and the development of spatial patterns in simple organisms.

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Abstract: List of Tables Preface 1. Introduction 2. What is Life? 3. Chemical evolution 4. The evolution of templates 5. The chicken and egg problem 6. The origin of translation and the genetic code 7. The origin of protocells 8. The origin of eukaryotes 9. The origin of sex and the nature of species 10. Intragenomic conflict 11. Symbiosis 12. Development in simple organisms 13. Gene regulation and cell heredity 14. The development of spatial patterns 15. Development and evolution 16. The origins of societies 17. The origins of language References Index

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3,866 citations

Book•

Foundations of cognitive grammar

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Ronald W. Langacker

01 Jan 1983

3,780 citations