Case studies of applying Gibson's ecological approach to mobile robots

Abstract

Gibson's ecological approach to perception has recently received significant attention in the robotics literature, The approach relies on the identification and application of affordances for a behaviour. However, determining suitable affordances has been treated as an art rather than a science. This paper presents a methodology for deciding whether an affordance-based approach should be pursued for a specific behaviour and for isolating a reliable affordance. Three case studies on three mobile robots are presented which used this methodology successfully. The case studies illustrate the advantages and limitations of affordances, as well as offer practical insights into applying the ecological approach.