Robotic demonstrators developed by European researchers produce
compelling evidence that ‘thinking-by-doing’ is the machine
cognition paradigm of the future. Robots act on objects and
teach themselves in the process. European researchers at the
PACO-PLUS project have developed robotic demonstrators to
illustrate a new approach to robotic cognition. The team uses a
concept called ‘object-action complexes’ (OACs), pronounced
oaks. These complexes represent a combination of perception of
and action upon any given object. The OACs are recorded by the
robot every time it performs an action. These recorded actions
can be saved and exchanged with other robots, and over time the
team hope it will lead to entire libraries of OACs that can be
exchanged between researchers. But that is just a major bonus of
this particular system. The primary thrust was to show that
robots could teach themselves simple actions, leading to more
complex actions and, hopefully, leading to abstract thought in
the future. The PACO-PLUS team