Unit 1

- DevelopmentalRobotics
introduction
 DevRob Definition and History

This units will give a definition of Developmental

Robotics (DevRob, henceforth) and look at its
origins within the field of Artificial Intelligence
(e.g. Turing) and the nature-nurture debate in
child psychology. It will then discuss the recent
estalishment of the DevRob community working
on baby robots and autonomous cognitive
development. The unit will specifically focus on:
 DevRob Definition and History (contd)

• Turing’s vision of developmental systems;

• Definition and characteristics;
• Nature vs Nurture debate;
• History and establishment of the DevRob
community
 AI Origins

Alan Turing, one of the fathers of computer science and Artificial

Intelligence (AI), in 1950 already provided a vision of a developmental
approach to the simulation of the child’s mind.

«Instead of trying to produce a programme to simulate the adult mind,

why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child’s? If this
were then subjected to an appropriate course of education one would
obtain the adult brain» Alan Turing (1950:440)

But it wasn’t until 50 years later, in early 2000s, that such a vision start
to be come real with the establishment of the DevRob community.
 Definition of developmental
Robotics

«Developmental Robotics is
the interdisciplinary approach to
the autonomous design of behavioral and
cognitive capabilities in artificial agents (robots)
that takes direct inspiration from
thedevelopmental principles and
mechanisms in natural cognitive systems
(children)» (Cangelosi & Schlesinger, 2015)
 DevRob Characteristics

Developmental Robotics characteristics:

 Highly interdisciplinary effort of empirical
developmental sciences, e.g.
developmental psychology, neuroscience and
comparative psychology,
and computational and robotics sciences, e.g.
robotics and artificial intelligence.
 DevRob Characteristics
 Developmental sciences provide the empirical
bases and data to identify the general
developmental principles, mechanisms,
models and phenomena guiding the
incremental acquisition of cognitive skills.
 DevRob Characteristics
• The implementation of these principles and
mechanisms into a robot’s control architecture
and the testing through experiments, where
the robot interacts with its physical and social
environment simultaneously, permits
the validation of such principles and the
actual design of complex behavioral and
mental capabilities in robots.
 DevRob History

• Developmental Robotics history and origins:

First, pioneering work and

publications advocating an explicit link between
human development and robotics;
E.g. Sandini, Metta and Konczak (1997), Brooks
et al. (1998), Scassellatti (1998), and Asada,
MacDorman, Ishiguro and Kuniyoshi (2001).
 DevRob History
• The birth of the developmental robotics field traces its
origins to the years 2000-2001, in coincidence with two
scientific workshops/conference series:

• ICDL: International Conference on Developmental and

Learning (first ICDL Workshop in 2000, in Lansing);

• EpiRob: International Workshop on Epigenetic

Robotics (first EpiRob Workshop in 2001, in Lund,
Sweden).
 DevRob History
• The two conference series merged efforts in 2011 with 1st
Joint ICDL-EpiRob Conference (Frankfurt) and subsequent
yearly meetings (2015 is in Providence, USA)Dedicated
journal from 2009:
IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development;

• Dedicated newsletter: AMD Newsletter;

• Dedicated Technical Committee of the IEEE Computational
Intelligence Society (CIS): AMDTC;
• Website with link to all ICDL-EpiRob conferences: icdl-
epirob.org.
 DevRob Terminology

• “Developmental Robotics” term used in the

following reviews:
• Metta, Sandini, Natale & Panerai, 2001;
Lungarella, Metta, Pfeifer & Sandini, 2003;
Vernon, von Hofsten & Fadiga, 2010; Oudeyer
2012;
• Most recent and comprehensive review in the
2015 volume by Cangelosi and Schlesinger (MIT
Press);
 Other names proposed for the same approach/field;

• Cognitive Developmental Robotics (Asada et al. 2001, 2009)

for more general cognitive systems approach

• Autonomous Mental Development (Weng et al. 2001; ICDL

Conference series) to stress autonomous aspects of mental
(i.e. cognitve) development;

• Epigenetic Robotics (Balkenius, Zlatev, Kozima, Dautenhahn &

Breazeal, 2001; Berthouze & Ziemke, 2003; EpiRob
Conference Series) to trace its origins and inspiration from
Piaget’s Epigenetic Theory.
 Developmental Theories

• Developmental Theories and Nature vs.

Nurture (i.e. Nativist vs Empiricist) debate
informs DevRob field. Nativist (Nature)
Theories:
• Children are born with innate, domain-specific
knowledge, which is the result of direct
influence of the genes on mental
development, with little or no influence from
environment.
Example:

Chomsky (1956): children are born with Language Acquisition Device

for language;Leslie (1994): children are born with a theory of mind;
Wynn (1998): innate knowledge of math concepts

Empiricist (Nurture) Theories:

Importance of the social and cultural environment and experience on cognitive

development.
For example:
E.g. Vygotsky‘s (1978) sociocultural theory, where the role of adults and peers is
essential to guide the child to exploit her “zone of proximal development” (the space of
the infant’s potential capabilities);

Bruner‘s socio-cognitive theory of development (Bruner & Helen, 1987) on the

importance of social interaction and interpersonal communication in the various
learning stages;

Tomasello (2003) principle of constructivist and emergent development, whereby the

child constructs her own language competence through interaction with others
 Empiricist (Nurture) Theories:

Piaget‘s (1971) Epigenetics theory, based on adaptation (assimilation and

accommodation) with stage-like, qualitative progression. Piaget’s theory combines
nurture mechanisms with empirical developmental mechanisms;

Thelen and Smith’s (1994) dynamical systems theory of development. This considers
the complex, dynamics interaction of various neural, embodiment and
environmental factors in the self-organization of cognitive strategies;

The nature/nurture debate and nativist/empiricist theories have significantly

influenced other fields interested in the study of intelligence, specifically in artificial
intelligence and robotics
 Summary

• DevRob uses interidisciplinary approach, inspired by

developmental (psychology) mechanisms, for the
autonomous design of skills in robots.
• Origins in Turing’s developmental vision.
• Discipline started in 2000, with the first ICDL
and EpiRob workshops.
• Within the Nature vs Nurture Debate, DevRob
plavces emphasis on empirical, interaction
phenomena for cognitive development.