Cognitive Robotics and Adaptive Behaviors

The development and use of robotics is affecting all aspects of modern life. There is a demand not only for robots that can move, interact, learn, and act in real-time dynamic and unconstrained environments but also for those that can interact smoothly and safely with the actions and movements of people within the same environments. In addition to managing complex motor coordination, these robots also require the ability to acquire and represent knowledge, deal with uncertainty at different operational levels, learn, reason, adapt, and have the autonomy to make intelligent decisions and act upon them. They should be able to learn from interaction, anticipate the outcomes of actions, acquire experiences and use them as required for future activities. Cognitive robotics is the interdisciplinary term used to describe robots that merge all these features and capabilities in their hardware and software architectures.