Communications of the ACM
Me, Myself, and Icub: Meet the Robot With a Self
Researchers are trying to give their iCub robot an artificial "self" by getting it to emulate the five elements of the self first articulated by psychologist Ulric Neisser in the 1990s.
Credit: New Scientist
Researchers at the University of Sheffield's Sheffield Robotics program are trying to give their iCub robot an artificial "self" by emulating the five elements of the self first articulated by psychologist Ulric Neisser in the 1990s: the ecological or physically situated self, the interpersonal self, the temporally-extended self, the conceptual self, and the private self.
So far, the Sheffield researchers have been able to emulate three of the five using a variety of processes meant to replicate the functions of the human brain. To create a physically-situated self, the researchers have developed a "body schema" that enables the iCub to be aware of its body and how to move it through space. To create an interpersonal self, they have devised a means by which the iCub can observe and then imitate human behaviors, such as learning hand gestures. Meanwhile, they created a temporal self by giving the iCub the means of remembering things that have happened and using that knowledge to predict what might happen in the future.
The researchers say the two remaining elements of the self, the conceptual and private self, are likely to be very difficult, but could be the key to granting the iCub self-awareness.
From New Scientist
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