Emergence of Functional Hierarchy in a Multiple Timescale Neural Network Model: A Humanoid Robot Experiment
Figure 2
(A) A humanoid robot was fixed to a stand. In front of the robot, a workbench was set up, and a cubic object (approximately 9×9×9 cm) was placed on the workbench to serve as the goal object. The task for the robot was to autonomously generate five different types of behavior: (1) move the object up and down three times, (2) move the object left and right three times, (3) move the object backward and forward three times, (4) touch the object with one hand, and (5) clap hands three times. For each behavior, the robot began from the home position and ended at the same home position. (B) For each behavior other than the clapping hands task, the object was located at five different positions (positions 1–5). Since the clapping hands behavior was independent of the location of the object, the object was located at the center of the workbench (position 3) and was never moved for this task.