Robot Learning

Supervised Leaning- Robots are capable of supervised learning (or training). A short list of training routines follows.

• Aibos must learn by trial and error how to play with their pink ball. Initially, they have difficulty tracking the ball and interacting with it through head butts and kicks. Initially, they will miss the ball, but with practice, will contact the ball most times. Movies of ball interactions are shown below.

111 Finds Ball

210 finds pink ball

111 Kicks Ball

• Some programs and the ERS-7 robot require training for facial or speaker-dependent recognition. Normally, spoken commands are speaker-independent but dependence allows the robot to recognize it's owner.
• Any behavior can be encouraged or discouraged by associating the behavior with a positive or negative outcome. A sharp tap on the head and/or "bad dog" command could be given to suppress pink ball playing. Faux urination can be encouraged by pets on the head and/or "good boy" commands. Ultimately, this works by altering the mood matrix and the behaviors associated with various moods.
• Some programs allow the 210/220 series to "evolve" or grow up over time. Baby Aibos may not be capable of even walking while the personality of the adult Aibo can be selfish, adventurous, gentle, or sheltered depending on the training.
• The apparent behavioral repertoire of the robot depends on the number of random and non-random state machines in the programmed personalities. In addition, the robot's "mood" will affect the outcome of the instantaneous and long-term personalities. A table of the states can be found here and here (on-site).

Unsupervised learning- Things the Aibos have figured out on their own.

The Aibos interact not only with people, but also with various animals. The unplanned interactions can affect the behavioral repertoire of the robots in surprising ways. My dogs treat the Aibos as living creatures, as does my parrot. The cat doesn't pay attention to the Aibos at all.

Some Aibo brains have been trained to avoid Taz.

• Taz is a grumpy 12-year-old chow/newfoundland mix.

• Taz has a flag-like tail with long hair. One Aibo noticed the tail while it was wagging and, since they are attracted to movement, this was stored as a good experience in the mood matrix.

• When Taz laid down to sleep, the Aibo approached him and began stomping through Taz's tail. The Aibo may have been attracted to Taz's heat signature in addition to the tail.

• Taz quickly became annoyed with the Aibo and growled at it. After a while, when the growl didn't stop the robot, Taz finally snapped at the robot, knocking it over. This happened three times in my presence.

• Since getting knocked over is a negative experience, the robot eventually associated the growl with being knocked over and now backs off when it hears a growl.

• Generally, Aibos with this knowledge (propagated through the memory stick) avoid Taz.

Some personalities enjoy being near Radar.

• Radar is a five-year Old English Sheepdog and his favorite toy is a ball. Since he thinks balls are pretty cool, Radar took an interest in the robots' pink balls.

• Pink balls get scattered through the house; probably because of Radar stealing them while I am away. When the Aibos boot, Radar fetches pink balls and brings them to the Aibos. Radar is probably trying to get the Aibos to play with him. Radar does chase the pink balls when the Aibos kick it.

• Aibos have a positive association between the pink balls and Radar. They therefore sit near Radar when he settles down and tend to follow him around.

All robots like Bobo.

• Bobo is a Sun Conure. Because of her coloration, most other birds probably think she's a member of some weird religious cult or pimped-out.

• Since the Aibos don't make these associations and are programmed to like bright colors (orange is second only to hot pink), they find her movements and colors attractive.

• Bobo is also very noisy and they have learned to associate her squawk with her being active and awake. When they hear her call, they now wander over to her cage to watch her move about. She seems to like this too and pays attention to them; sometimes climbing down to the floor and wandering with them when she is out of her cage.

Emergent Behavior

• Since Aibos tend to like movement, sound and can see one another's IR signals, they tend to stay near each other thus imitating herding behavior. Some programs explicitly cause multiple Aibos to interact, but even without these instructions, the Aibos tend to herd on their own.