The project I will be working on is a modified and updated version of the Dogged model that is described in the paper Braitenberg Creatures. Dogged is a very simple “creature” that simply changes direction when tapped from one of its sides. However, I don’t think this is a very animalistic behavior as animals do not just go the opposite way when touched. So instead of repelling, I decided to make a robot that represents a curious baby. As Scholastic describes:
Curious crawlers find everything in a room interesting. They wonder: “What will happen if I crawl toward that interesting contraption on the wall? What will happen if I climb up on that low table?” Babies respond to sensory experiences with curiosity and a desire to find out more about the world.
Babies are natural curious, and as a result, are continually fascinated by the world around them. However, they are also notorious for their incredibly short attention spans. As a result, they often switch from being interested in one thing to wondering about something else fairly quickly.
While I would not be able to make a robot that can actively decide to wonder about the world around it, and test different outcomes of its actions, I can make a robot that wants to explore and displays curiosity towards some things versus others at “random”. So, I will create a robot that will continually be moving, and while doing so, it will be “looking” around the room with its sonar sensor. If it senses something close by, it may or may not choose to approach it and “investigate” it further. If it does go, it will take a look at the object it has found, and after a certain amount of time, it will lose interest and go on its way.
Part of the inspiration for this robot comes from an explorer robot I built a while ago. However, that robot is too mechanical in its actions, so instead, I will make the robot explore more “naturally”.
Here is a video of how that explorar robot works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZu6-AnXRFw
Sources:
Braitenberg Creatures by Hogg, Martin, and Resnick