Dualcoding representations for robot vision progr

Authors: David S Touretzky Neil S Halelamien Ethan J TiraThompson Jordan J Wales Kei Usui

Publish Date: 2007/01/30

Volume: 22, Issue: 4, Pages: 425-435

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Abstract

We describe complementary iconic and symbolic representations for parsing the visual world The iconic pixmap representation is operated on by an extensible set of “visual routines” Ullman 1984 Forbus et al 2001 A symbolic representation in terms of lines ellipses blobs etc is extracted from the iconic encoding manipulated algebraically and rerendered iconically The two representations are therefore duals and iconic operations can be freely intermixed with symbolic ones The dualcoding approach offers robot programmers a versatile collection of primitives from which to construct applicationspecific vision software We describe some sample applications implemented on the Sony AIBODavid S Touretzky is a Research Professor in the Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University He earned his BA in Computer Science from Rutgers University in 1978 and his MS 1979 and PhD 1984 in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon Dr Touretzky’s research interests are in computational neuroscience particularly representations of space in the rodent hippocampus and related structures and high level primitives for robot programming He is presently developing an undergraduate curriculum in cognitive robotics based on the Tekkotsu software framework described in this articleNeil S Halelamien earned a BS in Computer Science and a BS in Cognitive Science at Carnegie Mellon University in 2004 and is currently pursuing his PhD in the Computation Neural Systems program at the California Institute of Technology His research interests are in studying vision from both a computational and biological perspective He is currently using transcranial magnetic stimulation to study visual representations and information processing in visual cortexEthan J TiraThompson is a graduate student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University He earned a BS in Computer Science and a BS in HumanComputer Interaction in 2002 and an MS in Robotics in 2004 at Carnegie Mellon He is interested in a wide variety of computer science topics including machine learning computer vision software architecture and interface design Ethan’s research has revolved around the creation of the Tekkotsu framework to enable the rapid development of robotics software and its use in education He intends to specialize in mobile manipulation and motion planning for the completion of his degreeJordan J Wales is completing a Master of Studies in Theology at the University of Notre Dame He earned a BS in Engineering Swarthmore College 2001 an MSc in Cognitive Science Edinburgh UK 2002 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Theology Oxford UK 2003 After a year as a graduate research assistant in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon he entered the master’s program in Theology at Notre Dame and is now applying to doctoral programs His research focus in early and medieval Christianity is accompanied by an interest in medieval and modern philosophies of mind and their connections with modern cognitive scienceKei Usui is a masters student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University He earned his BS in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005 His research interests are reinforcement learning legged locomotion and cognitive science He is presently working on algorithms for humanoid robots to maintain balance against unexpected external forces

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