No Robot is an Island: An Always-On Cognitive Architecture for Social Context Awareness in Dynamic Environments*

Abstract

Robots operating in dynamic environments must continuously perceive, learn, and adapt to function autonomously. In line with the Artificial Cognition (ACo) approach, we present an Always-On cognitive architecture that enables robots to continuously perceive and build a selfsupervised, emergent representation of the environment to support future proactive behavior. The architecture combines sensor fusion, efficient multimodal in-memory representation of perception, and the self-organization of personal experiences through memory consolidation. We validated the system in both our laboratory and at the Humanoids 2024 conference, where it autonomously learned to distinguish between lively episodes characterized by high social activity - and calm episodes of minimal interaction. This foundational distinction lays the groundwork for context-awareness and proactive behavior. This work represents a step toward truly autonomous, self-improving robotic agents, paving the way for more intelligent and continuously learning cognitive systems.