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13 - How to build an imitator

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2009

By
Arnaud Revel  and
Jacqueline Nadel
Edited by
Chrystopher L. Nehaniv  and
Kerstin Dautenhahn
Arnaud Revel
Affiliation:
CNRS, Group ETIS, France
Jacqueline Nadel
Affiliation:
CNRS, Group Development and Psychopathology, France
Chrystopher L. Nehaniv
Affiliation:
University of Hertfordshire
Kerstin Dautenhahn
Affiliation:
University of Hertfordshire
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Summary

Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to parallel the development of imitation in a human infant and in an autonomous robot. To draw a valid comparison between the two systems – namely the infant and the robot – it is necessary to insure that their respective architectures present sufficient basic similarities. The present chapter will thus start with a description of the main features that enable a human neonate and the autonomous robot designed by the ETIS group to develop a capacity to imitate. Note that the robot is not implemented to imitate and that imitation will develop spontaneously as a result of the capacity of the robot to couple perception and action together with an imprecision in its visual perception.

Within the framework of a bottom-up perspective, we propose in the second part of the chapter to consider the development of imitation as a continuous phenomenon throughout development. Consequently, we will devote the third part of the chapter to show how basic perception–action coupling may not only account for the development of learning but also for the development of the communicative function of imitation. Exploring the communicative function of imitation is a new topic for roboticists, who classically consider imitation as a way to learn more rapidly relevant interactions within a novel environment. A model of synchronization of rhythm between two systems describes the first steps toward a communicative use of imitation.

Type
Chapter
Information
Imitation and Social Learning in Robots, Humans and Animals
Behavioural, Social and Communicative Dimensions
 , pp. 279 - 300
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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