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Intrinsically Motivated Learning in Natural and Artificial Systems pp 411–432Cite as

The “Mechatronic Board”: A Tool to Study Intrinsic Motivations in Humans, Monkeys, and Humanoid Robots

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Abstract

In this chapter the design and fabrication of a new mechatronic platform (called “mechatronic board”) for behavioural analysis of children, non-human primates, and robots are presented and discussed. The platform is the result of a multidisciplinary design approach which merges indications coming from neuroscientists, psychologists, primatologists, roboticists, and bioengineers, with the main goal of studying learning mechanisms driven by intrinsic motivations and curiosity. This chapter firstly introduces the main requirements of the platform, coming from the different needs of the experiments involving the different types of participants. Then, it provides a detailed analysis of the main features of the mechatronic board, focusing on its key aspects which allow the study of intrinsically motivated learning in children and non-human primates. Finally, it shows some preliminary results on curiosity-driven learning coming from pilot experiments involving children, capuchin monkeys, and a computational model of the behaviour of these organisms tested with a humanoid robot (the iCub robot). These experiments investigate the capacity of children, capuchin monkeys, and a computational model implemented on the iCub robot to learn action-outcome contingencies on the basis of intrinsic motivations.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the European Community 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013), “Challenge 2: Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics”, Grant Agreement No. ICT-IP-231722, and Project “IM-CLeVeR: Intrinsically Motivated Cumulative Learning Versatile Robots”. It was also supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, FIRB Research Program 2006, no. RBAP06SPK5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Università Campus Biomedico, Rome, Italy

    Fabrizio Taffoni, Domenico Formica, Giuseppina Schiavone, Maria Scorcia & Eugenio Guglielmelli

  2. Laboratory of Developmental Neuroscience, Università Campus Biomedico, Rome, Italy

    Alessandra Tomassetti & Flavio Keller

  3. Unit of Cognitive Primatology, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Rome, Italy

    Eugenia Polizzi di Sorrentino, Gloria Sabbatini, Valentina Truppa & Elisabetta Visalberghi

  4. Laboratory of Computational Embodied Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Rome, Italy

    Francesco Mannella, Vincenzo Fiore, Marco Mirolli & Gianluca Baldassarre

Authors
  1. Fabrizio Taffoni
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  2. Domenico Formica
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  3. Giuseppina Schiavone
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  4. Maria Scorcia
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  6. Eugenia Polizzi di Sorrentino
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  7. Gloria Sabbatini
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  8. Valentina Truppa
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  9. Francesco Mannella
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  10. Vincenzo Fiore
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  11. Marco Mirolli
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  12. Gianluca Baldassarre
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  13. Elisabetta Visalberghi
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  14. Flavio Keller
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  15. Eugenio Guglielmelli
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Correspondence to Fabrizio Taffoni .

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  1. Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy

    Gianluca Baldassarre  & Marco Mirolli  & 

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Taffoni, F. et al. (2013). The “Mechatronic Board”: A Tool to Study Intrinsic Motivations in Humans, Monkeys, and Humanoid Robots. In: Baldassarre, G., Mirolli, M. (eds) Intrinsically Motivated Learning in Natural and Artificial Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32375-1_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32375-1_16

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