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Thesis

French

ID: <

10670/1.588vky

>

Where these data come from
From self-evaluation to emotions : neuromimetic and bayesian approaches for the learning of complex behavior involving multimodal informations

Abstract

The goal of this thesis is to build a bio-inspired architecture allowing a robot to autonomouslynavigate over large distances. In a cognitive science point of view, the model also aim at improv-ing the understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms. Previous works showed thata computational model of hippocampal place cells, based on neurobiological studies made onrodent, allows a robot to learn robust navigation behaviors. The robot can learn a round or ahoming behavior from a few associations between places and actions. The learning and recog-nition of a place were only defined by visual information and shows limitations for navigatinglarge environments.Adding other sensorial modalities is an effective solution for improving the robustness of placesrecognition in complex environments. This solution led us to the elementary blocks requiredwhen trying to perform multimodal information merging. Such merging has been done, first,by a simple conditioning between 2 modalities and next improved by a more generic model ofinter-modal prediction. In this model, each modality learns to predict the others in usual situa-tions, in order to be able to detect abnormal situations and to compensate missing informationof the others. Such a low level mechanism allows to keep a coherent perception even if onemodality is wrong. Moreover, the model can detect unexpected situations and thus exhibit someself-assessment capabilities: the assessment of its own perception. Following this model of self-assessment, we focus on the fundamental properties of a system for evaluating its behaviors.The first fundamental property that pops out is the statement that evaluating a behavior is anability to recognize a dynamics between sensations and actions, rather than recognizing a sim-ple sensorial pattern. A first step was thus to take into account the sensation/action couplingand build an internal minimalist model of the interaction between the agent and its environment.Such of model defines the basis on which the system will build predictions and expectations.The second fundamental property of self-assessment is the ability to extract relevant informa-tion by the use of statistical processes to perform predictions. We show how a neural networkcan estimate probability density functions through a simple conditioning rule. This probabilis-tic learning allows to achieve bayesian inferences since the system estimates the probability ofobserving a particular behavior from statistical information it recognizes about this behavior.The robot estimates the different statistical momentums (mean, variance, skewness, etc...) of abehavior dynamics by cascading few simple conditioning. Then, the non-recognition of such adynamics is interpreted as an abnormal behavior.But detecting an abnormal behavior is not sufficient to conclude to its inefficiency. The systemmust also monitor the temporal evolution of such an abnormality to judge the relevance of thebehavior. We show how an emotional meta-controller can use this novelty detection to regu-late behaviors and so select the best appropriate strategy in a given context. Finally, we showhow a simple frustration mechanism allows the robot to call for help when it detects potentialdeadlocks. Such a mechanism highlights situations where a skills improvement is possible, soas some developmental processes.

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