36 research outputs found
Artificial Collective Intelligence Engineering: a Survey of Concepts and Perspectives
Collectiveness is an important property of many systems--both natural and
artificial. By exploiting a large number of individuals, it is often possible
to produce effects that go far beyond the capabilities of the smartest
individuals, or even to produce intelligent collective behaviour out of
not-so-intelligent individuals. Indeed, collective intelligence, namely the
capability of a group to act collectively in a seemingly intelligent way, is
increasingly often a design goal of engineered computational systems--motivated
by recent techno-scientific trends like the Internet of Things, swarm robotics,
and crowd computing, just to name a few. For several years, the collective
intelligence observed in natural and artificial systems has served as a source
of inspiration for engineering ideas, models, and mechanisms. Today, artificial
and computational collective intelligence are recognised research topics,
spanning various techniques, kinds of target systems, and application domains.
However, there is still a lot of fragmentation in the research panorama of the
topic within computer science, and the verticality of most communities and
contributions makes it difficult to extract the core underlying ideas and
frames of reference. The challenge is to identify, place in a common structure,
and ultimately connect the different areas and methods addressing intelligent
collectives. To address this gap, this paper considers a set of broad scoping
questions providing a map of collective intelligence research, mostly by the
point of view of computer scientists and engineers. Accordingly, it covers
preliminary notions, fundamental concepts, and the main research perspectives,
identifying opportunities and challenges for researchers on artificial and
computational collective intelligence engineering.Comment: This is the author's final version of the article, accepted for
publication in the Artificial Life journal. Data: 34 pages, 2 figure
Drive Like a Human: Rethinking Autonomous Driving with Large Language Models
In this paper, we explore the potential of using a large language model (LLM)
to understand the driving environment in a human-like manner and analyze its
ability to reason, interpret, and memorize when facing complex scenarios. We
argue that traditional optimization-based and modular autonomous driving (AD)
systems face inherent performance limitations when dealing with long-tail
corner cases. To address this problem, we propose that an ideal AD system
should drive like a human, accumulating experience through continuous driving
and using common sense to solve problems. To achieve this goal, we identify
three key abilities necessary for an AD system: reasoning, interpretation, and
memorization. We demonstrate the feasibility of employing an LLM in driving
scenarios by building a closed-loop system to showcase its comprehension and
environment-interaction abilities. Our extensive experiments show that the LLM
exhibits the impressive ability to reason and solve long-tailed cases,
providing valuable insights for the development of human-like autonomous
driving. The related code are available at
https://github.com/PJLab-ADG/DriveLikeAHuman
Efficient Bayesian Exploration for Soft Morphology-Action Co-optimization
UK Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board(Project CP 172)AHD
Sea star inspired crawling and bouncing
The oral surface of sea stars is lined with arrays of tube feet that enable
them to achieve highly controlled locomotion on various terrains. The activity
of the tube feet is orchestrated by a nervous system that is distributed
throughout the body without a central brain. How such a distributed nervous
system produces a coordinated locomotion is yet to be understood. We develop
mathematical models of the biomechanics of the tube feet and the sea star body.
In the model, the feet are coupled mechanically through their structural
connection to a rigid body. We formulate hierarchical control laws that capture
salient features of the sea star nervous system. Namely, at the tube foot
level, the power and recovery strokes follow a state-dependent feedback
controller. At the system level, a directionality command is communicated
through the nervous system to all tube feet. We study the locomotion gaits
afforded by this hierarchical control model. We find that these
minimally-coupled tube feet coordinate to generate robust forward locomotion,
reminiscent of the crawling motion of sea stars, on various terrains and for
heterogeneous tube feet parameters and initial conditions. Our model also
predicts a transition from crawling to bouncing consistent with recent
experiments. We conclude by commenting on the implications of these findings
for understanding the neuromechanics of sea stars and their potential
application to autonomous robotic systems
Empowerment As Replacement for the Three Laws of Robotics
© 2017 Salge and Polani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.The greater ubiquity of robots creates a need for generic guidelines for robot behaviour. We focus less on how a robot can technically achieve a predefined goal, and more on what a robot should do in the first place. Particularly, we are interested in the question how a heuristic should look like which motivates the robot's behaviour in interaction with human agents. We make a concrete, operational proposal as to how the information-theoretic concept of empowerment can be used as a generic heuristic to quantify concepts such as self-preservation, protection of the human partner and responding to human actions. While elsewhere we studied involved single-agent scenarios in detail, here we present proof-of-principle scenarios demonstrating how empowerment interpreted in light of these perspectives allows one to specify core concepts with a similar aim as Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics in an operational way. Importantly, this route does not depend on having to establish an explicit verbalized understanding of human language and conventions in the robots. Also, it incorporates the ability to take into account a rich variety of different situations and types of robotic embodiment.Peer reviewe
Cognitive Architectures for Serious Games
This dissertation summarises a research path aimed at fostering the use of Cognitive Architectures in Serious Games research field. Cognitive Architectures are an embodiment of scientific hypotheses and theories aimed at capturing the mechanisms of cognition that are considered consistent over time and independent of specific tasks or domains. The theoretical approaches provided by the research in computational cognitive modelling have been used to formalise a methodological framework to guide researchers and experts in the game-based education sector in designing, implementing, and evaluating Serious Games. The investigation of cognitive processes involved during the game experience represents the fundamental step of the pro- posed approach. Two different case studies are described to discuss the possible use of the suggested framework. In the first case study, the aim was to design a modified version of the Tetris game with the intention of making the game more effective in training the visual-spatial skill called mental rotation. In the second scenario, the frame- work was used as a basis for creating an innovative persuasive game. This case study provides an example of adopting cognitive architectures for implementing a non-player character with human-like behaviour developed using targeted cognitive theories
Designing Embodied Interactive Software Agents for E-Learning: Principles, Components, and Roles
Embodied interactive software agents are complex autonomous, adaptive, and social software systems with a digital embodiment that enables them to act on and react to other entities (users, objects, and other agents) in their environment through bodily actions, which include the use of verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviors in face-to-face interactions with the user. These agents have been developed for various roles in different application domains, in which they perform tasks that have been assigned to them by their developers or delegated to them by their users or by other agents. In computer-assisted learning, embodied interactive pedagogical software agents have the general task to promote human learning by working with students (and other agents) in computer-based learning environments, among them e-learning platforms based on Internet technologies, such as the Virtual Linguistics Campus (www.linguistics-online.com). In these environments, pedagogical agents provide contextualized, qualified, personalized, and timely assistance, cooperation, instruction, motivation, and services for both individual learners and groups of learners.
This thesis develops a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and user-oriented view of the design of embodied interactive pedagogical software agents, which integrates theoretical and practical insights from various academic and other fields. The research intends to contribute to the scientific understanding of issues, methods, theories, and technologies that are involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of embodied interactive software agents for different roles in e-learning and other areas. For developers, the thesis provides sixteen basic principles (Added Value, Perceptible Qualities, Balanced Design, Coherence, Consistency, Completeness, Comprehensibility, Individuality, Variability, Communicative Ability, Modularity, Teamwork, Participatory Design, Role Awareness, Cultural Awareness, and Relationship Building) plus a large number of specific guidelines for the design of embodied interactive software agents and their components. Furthermore, it offers critical reviews of theories, concepts, approaches, and technologies from different areas and disciplines that are relevant to agent design. Finally, it discusses three pedagogical agent roles (virtual native speaker, coach, and peer) in the scenario of the linguistic fieldwork classes on the Virtual Linguistics Campus and presents detailed considerations for the design of an agent for one of these roles (the virtual native speaker)