Challenges in Building Robots that Imitate People

Abstract

Human (and some other animals) acquire new skills socially through direct tutelage, observational conditioning, goal emulation, imitation, and other methods (Galef, 1988; Hauser, 1996). These social learning skills provide a powerful mechanism for an observer to acquire behaviors and knowledge from a skilled individual (the model). In particular, imitation is an extremely powerful mechanism for social learning which has received a great deal of interest from researchers in the fields of animal behavior and child development.