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A theory of cheap control in embodied systems
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2014
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Herausgeber*innen
Journal
Volume
11
Issue
9
Article Number
e1004427
Citation
PLoS Computational Biology 11 (9): e1004427 (2014)
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
PubMed ID
26325254
ArXiv ID
Publisher
Public Library of Science
We present a framework for designing cheap control architectures for embodied agents. Our derivation is guided by the classical problem of universal approximation, whereby we explore the possibility of exploiting the agent's embodiment for a new and more efficient universal approximation of behaviors generated by sensorimotor control. This embodied universal approximation is compared with the classical non-embodied universal approximation. To exemplify our approach, we present a detailed quantitative case study for policy models defined in terms of conditional restricted Boltzmann machines. In contrast to non-embodied universal approximation, which requires an exponential number of parameters, in the embodied setting we are able to generate all possible behaviors with a drastically smaller model, thus obtaining cheap universal approximation. We test and corroborate the theory experimentally with a six-legged walking machine. The experiments show that the sufficient controller complexity predicted by our theory is tight, which means that the theory has direct practical implications. Keywords: cheap design, embodiment, sensorimotor loop, universal approximation, conditional restricted Boltzmann machine
Subjects
cs.SY
Computer Science - Robotics
Mathematics - Probability
68T05
60K99
DDC Class
510: Mathematik