Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!mimsy!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!homxb!houdi!marty1
From: marty1@houdi.UUCP (M.BRILLIANT)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Seeing-Eye robots
Message-ID: <1229@houdi.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Jul-87 13:54:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: houdi.1229
Posted: Thu Jul 16 13:54:49 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 08:48:23 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 19
Keywords: cognition recognition symbol grounding meaning

Suppose one wanted to build a robot that does what a Seeing-Eye dog
does (that is, helping a blind person to get around), but communicates
in the blind person's own language instead of by pushing and pulling.

Clearly this robot does not have to imitate a human being.  But it does
have to recognize objects and associate them with the names that humans
use for them.  It also has to interpret certain situations in its
owner's terms: for instance, walking in one direction leads to danger,
and walking in another direction leads to the goal.

What problems will have to be solved to build such a robot?  Will its
hypothetical designers have to deal with the problem of mere
recognition, or the deeper problem of grounding symbols in meaning? 
Could it be built by hardwiring sensors to a top-down symbolic
processor, or would it require a hybrid processor?

M. B. Brilliant					Marty
AT&T-BL HO 3D-520	(201)-949-1858
Holmdel, NJ 07733	ihnp4!houdi!marty1