The Playful Machine - Theoretical Foundation and Practical Realization of Self-Organizing Robots

2012

Book

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Autonomous robots may become our closest companions in the near future. While the technology for physically building such machines is already available today, a problem lies in the generation of the behavior for such complex machines. Nature proposes a solution: young children and higher animals learn to master their complex brain-body systems by playing. Can this be an option for robots? How can a machine be playful? The book provides answers by developing a general principle---homeokinesis, the dynamical symbiosis between brain, body, and environment---that is shown to drive robots to self-determined, individual development in a playful and obviously embodiment-related way: a dog-like robot starts playing with a barrier, eventually jumping or climbing over it; a snakebot develops coiling and jumping modes; humanoids develop climbing behaviors when fallen into a pit, or engage in wrestling-like scenarios when encountering an opponent. The book also develops guided self-organization, a new method that helps to make the playful machines fit for fulfilling tasks in the real world.

@book{DerMartius11,
  title = {{T}he {P}layful {M}achine - {T}heoretical Foundation and Practical Realization of Self-Organizing Robots},
  author = {Der, Ralf and Martius, Georg},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address = {Berlin Heidelberg},
  year = {2012},
  doi = {},
  url = {http://playfulmachines.com}
}