Perceiving and acting out of the box

Abstract

This paper discusses potential limitations in learning in au-tonomous robotic systems that integrate several specialized subsystemsworking at different levels of abstraction. If the designers have antici-pated what the system may have to learn, then adding new knowledgeboils down to adding new entries in a database and/or tuning parametersof some subsystem(s). But if this new knowledge does not fit in prede-fined structures, the system can simply not acquire it, hence it cannot“think out of the box” designed by its creators. We show why learningout of the box may be difficult in integrated systems, hint at some exist-ing potential approaches, and finally suggest that a better approach maycome by looking at constructivist epistemology, with focus on Piaget’sschemas theory