Spatial Representation and Reasoning for Human-Robot Collaboration

How should a robot represent and reason about spatial information when it needs to collaborate effectively with a human? The form of spatial representation that is useful for robot navigation may not be useful in higher-level reasoning or working with humans as a team member. To explore this question, we have extended previous work on how children and robots learn to play hide and seek to a human-robot team covertly approaching a moving target. We used the cognitive modeling system, ACT-R, with an added spatial module to support the robot’s spatial reasoning. The robot interacted with a team member through voice, gestures, and movement during the team’s covert approach of a moving target. This paper describes the new robotic system and its integration of metric, symbolic, and cognitive layers of spatial representation and reasoning for its individual and team behavior.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: AAAI
• Authors: William G. Kennedy, Magdalena D. Bugajska, Matthew Marge, William Adams, Benjamin R. Fransen, Dennis Perzanowski, Alan C. Schultz, J. Gregory Trafton
• Keywords: AAAI 2007, Intelligent Agents, Robot, Spatial, Spatial Representation