Abstract
The paper discusses two prominent theories of cognitive development and relates them to experiments in social robotics. The main difference between these theories lies in the different views on the relationship between a child and its social environment: a) the child as a solitary thinker (Piaget) and b) the child in society (Vygotsky). We discuss the implications this has on the design of socially intelligent agents, focusing on robotic agents. We argue that the framework proposed by Vygotsky provides a promising research direction in autonomous agents. We give examples of implementations in the area of social robotics which support our theoretical considerations. More specifically, we demonstrate how a teacher-learner setup can be used to teach a robot a proto-language. The same control architecture is also used for a humanoid doll robot which can interact with a human by imitation. Another experiment addresses dynamic coupling of movements between a human and a mobile robot. Here, emergent robot-human interaction dynamics are influenced by the temporal coordination between the robot's and the human's movements.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | 1999 3rd European Workshop on Advanced Mobile Robots, Eurobot 1999 - Proceedings |
Editors | Sjur J. Vestli, Wolfram Burgard, Ulrich Nehmzow, Gerhard Schweitzer |
Publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) |
Pages | 187-194 |
Number of pages | 8 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 0780356721, 9780780356726 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 1999 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 3rd European Workshop on Advanced Mobile Rob.ots, Eurobot 1999 - Zurich, Switzerland Duration: 6 Sept 1999 → 8 Sept 1999 |
Publication series
Name | 1999 3rd European Workshop on Advanced Mobile Robots, Eurobot 1999 - Proceedings |
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Conference
Conference | 3rd European Workshop on Advanced Mobile Rob.ots, Eurobot 1999 |
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Country/Territory | Switzerland |
City | Zurich |
Period | 6/09/99 → 8/09/99 |