Overview
Developmental Robotics is a new approach in artificial intelligence and robotics that focuses on the autonomous self-organization of general-purpose, task nonspecific control systems. It takes its inspiration from developmental psychology and developmental neuroscience. Developmental robotics is a move away from task-specific methodologies where a robot is designed to solve a particular pre-defined task (such as path planning to a goal location).
This new approach explores the kinds of perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral capabilities that a robot can discover through self-motivated actions based on its own physical morphology and the dynamic structure of its environment. Initially a developmental system might bootstrap itself with some innate knowledge or behavior, but with experience could create more complex representations and actions, leading to complete Autonomous Mental Development (AMD). Developmental robotics is different from many learning and evolutionary systems in that the reinforcement signal, teacher target, or fitness function comes from within the system. In this manner, these systems are designed to rely more on mechanisms such as self-motivation, homeostasis, or "emotions."
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Mailing list: http://developmentalrobotics.org/mailman/listinfo/devrob
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SimulatedWorldsRepository - a collection of simulated worlds and robots
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Calendar - upcoming dates for papers, conferences, and journals related to developmental robotics
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Researchers - list of laboratories and researchers
Local Resources
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Developmental Robotics Summer Research: Summer2007 - research page for Sarah Lawrence College, Swarthmore College, and Bryn Mawr College
Announcements
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Special Issue of Connection Science on Developmental Robotics - ConnectionScience
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