Object persistence

This video shows how we expect Ernest to learn about objects in the world. To do so, Ernest needs a Spatial Memory that keeps track of the places where Ernest enacted interactions. We implemented a mechanism that emulates a vestibular system to allow Ernest to keep track of his displacements in space.

In Ernest's Spatial Memory, blue half-circles represent places where Ernest turned; blue triangles represent places where he moved forward; red circles represent places where he bumped; green circles represent places where he situates the origin of visual perception that "attracts" him. These symbols are shrinking over time to represent memory decay.

This video shows that Ernest constructs a rough outline of the object in Spatial Memory, and localizes possibilities of interactions relatively to this object.

The big question now is how to make Ernest exploit this knowledge and how to entangle this knowledge construction mechanism with Ernest's "intrinsic motivation".

(Demo implemented with Ernest r228 and Vacuum r166)