Elaine.Atkinson@A.CS.CMU.EDU (10/15/86)
SPEAKER: Tom Mitchell, CMU, CS Department TITLE: "Toward a Learning Robot" DATE: Thursday, October 16 TIME: 4:00 p.m. PLACE: Adamson Wing, Baker Hall ABSTRACT: Consider the problem of constructing a learning robot; that is, a system that interfaces to some environment via a set of sensors and effectors, and which builds up a theory of its environment in order to control the environment in accordance with its goals. One instantiation of this problem is to construct a hand-eye system that can learn to manipulate a collection of blocks and to build simple structures from these blocks. We are starting a new research project to develop such a learning robot, and this talk will present some preliminary ideas about how to proceed. The talk will consider a number of questions such as what general cognitive architecture seems reasonable? What kinds of knowledge must such a robot learn? How should this knowledge be represented? How will it learn? How can the robot solve problems with only an incomplete understanding of its world? Can it use sensory feedback to make up for ambiguity in its world theory? There will probably be more questions than answers, so please bring your own.