Action-planning and execution from multimodal cues: An integrated cognitive model for artificial autonomous systems

Abstract

Using multimodal sensors to perceive the environment and subsequently performing intelligent sensor/motor allocation is of crucial interest for building autonomous systems. Such a capability should allow autonomous entities to (re)allocate their resources for solving their most critical tasks depending on their current state, sensory input and knowledge about the world. Architectures of artificial real-world systems with internal representation of the world and such dynamic motor allocation capabilities are invaluable for systems with limited resources. Based upon recent advances in attention research and psychophysiology we propose a general purpose selective attention mechanism that supports the construction of a world model and subsequent intelligent motor control. We implement and test this architecture including its selective attention mechanism, to build a probabilistic world model. The constructed world-model is used to select actions by means of a Bayesian inference method. Our method is tested in a multi-robot task, both in simulation and in the real world, including a coordination mission involving aerial and ground vehicles.