How Albot0 finds its way home: a novel approach to cognitive mapping using robots

Date
2011
Authors
Yeap, WK
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Abstract

Much of what we know about cognitive mapping comes from observing how biological agents behave in their physical environments, and several of these ideas were implemented on robots, imitating such a process. In this paper a novel approach to cognitive mapping is presented whereby robots are treated as a species of their own and their cognitive mapping is being investigated. Such robots are referred to as Albots. The design of the first Albot, Albot0, is presented. Albot0 computes an imprecise map and employs a novel method to find its way home. Both the map and the returnhome algorithm exhibited characteristics commonly found in biological agents. What we have learned from Albot0’s cognitive mapping are discussed. One major lesson is that the spatiality in a cognitive map affords us rich and useful information and this argues against recent suggestions that the notion of a cognitive map is not a useful one.

Description
Keywords
Spatial cognition , Cognitive mapping , Robotics , Inexact map
Source
Topics in Cognitive Science, vol.3(4), pp.707 - 721
Publisher's version
Rights statement
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. Authors retain the right to place his/her pre-publication version of the work on a personal website or institutional repository. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in (please see citation) as it is not a copy of this record. An electronic version of this article can be found online at: (Please see Publisher’s Version)