Proprioception and Imitation: On the Road to Agent Individuation, volume 264

Abstract. Since Piaget, it is well accepded that higher level cognitive functions are settled on low level sensori-motor associations. In this pa-per, we will show that different kinds of interactive behaviors can emerge according to the kind of proprioceptive function available in a given sensori-motor system. We will study two different examples. In the first one, an internal proprioceptive signal is avaible for the learning of the visuo-motor coordination between an arm and a camera. An imitation behavior can emerge when the robot ’s eye focuses on the hand of the ex-perimenter instead of its own hand. The imitative behavior results from the error minimization between the visual signal and the proprioceptive signal. Here, the imitation results from the perception ambiguity: the robot mistakes its hand with the experimenter hand! In the second ex-ample, a robot head has to recognize the facial expression of the human caregiver. Yet, the robot has no visual feedback of its own facial expres-sion. The human expressive resonance will allows the robot to select the visual features relevant for a particual facial expression. As a result, after few minutes of interactions, the robot can imitates the facial expression of the human partner. We will show the different proprioceptive signals used in both examples can be seen as bootstrap mechanisms for more complex interactions. Applied as a crude model of the human, we will propose that these mechanisms play an important role in the process of individuation.