The robot must be capable of generalizing imitated actions into different and more complex tasks. The interactions must be intuitive for the instructor. A developmental strategy allows increasingly more complex skills and competencies to be layered on top of continuously self-calibrating simpler competencies. It also organizes knowledge of the world in the same manner as that used by humans and thus contributes to intuitive understanding. We propose building software systems that exploit the embodiment , in the world, of the robots they control.
Embodiment facilitates a robot using the world as a tool for organizing and manipulating knowledge.
At the same time, just as with humans, it directs choices away from what could be done only with great difficulty and towards what can be done naturally and in keeping with the physics of the world. We propose building highly integrated software and robot systems which will maximize the efficiency and accuracy of complementary sensory and motor systems. To date we have worked on building a software substrate common across all robot platforms so that we can have a common set of software tools to carry out the research. Turn taking based on eye contact and head motion. A person will move Cog's arm through some task and Cog will then carry out the task by itself in a different part of the workspace.