Robotics and the Common Sense Informatic Situation.

Abstract

. This paper proposes a logic-based framework in which a robot constructs a model of the world through an abductive process whereby sensor data is explained by hypothesising the existence, locations, and shapes of objects. Symbols appearing in the resulting explanations acquire meaning through the theory, and yet are grounded by the robot's interaction with the world. The proposed framework draws on existing logic-based formalisms for representing action, continuous change, space, and shape. INTRODUCTION Without ignoring the lessons of the past, the nascent area of Cognitive Robotics [Lespérance, et al., 1994] seeks to reinstate the ideals of the Shakey project, namely the construction of robots whose architecture is based on the idea of representing the world by sentences of formal logic and reasoning about it by manipulating those sentences. The chief benefits of this approach are, . that it facilitates the endowment of a robot with the capacity to perform high-level reasoning tasks...