Imagination and situated cognition

TLDR

Cognitive tasks are performed by interacting with an imaginary world. The study introduces a novel agent architecture that models cognition as imagined interaction. The architecture is implemented and tested on a subsumption‑based mobile robot. The robot can explore, navigate goal‑directedly, read maps, and reason about unfamiliar environments. Keywords: planning, reactive systems, cognitive architectures, robots.

Abstract

Abstract Abstract We describe a novel agent architecture based on the idea that cognition is imagined interaction, i.e. that cognitive tasks are performed by interacting with an imaginary world. We demonstrate the architecture by its application to a subsumption-based mobile robot. The robot's interactive abilities include exploration of an environment and goal-directed navigation within a previously explored environment. Imagination enables the robot to read and make use of maps, allowing it to reason about unfamiliar environments as well. Keywords: planningreactive systemscognitive architecturesrobots