Ernest 8.4

Ernest 8.4 is the same as Ernest 8.3 except that Ernest 8.4's eyes can distinguish between various colors. Particularly, Ernest 8.4 can distinguish between two kinds of targets: blue targets and violet targets.

Ernest 8.4's eyes can also distinguish between singularities in the constitution of walls: orange bricks and yellow bricks. So far, however, Ernest's motivational system does not exploit these distinctions. Bricks leave Ernest 8.4 totally indifferent.

The next step will consist of making Ernest's motivations depend on internal states. For example, Ernest would pursue blue targets when he is "thirsty" and violet targets when he is "hungry". Moreover, we would like Ernest to learn to use environmental singularities as landmarks to navigate toward the desired target. Our idea is to make Ernest autonomously acquire new motivations to navigate toward landmarks that he has associated with desired targets.