Generation of sensory reflex behavior versus intentional proactive behavior in robot learning of cooperative interactions with others

This paper investigates the essential difference between two types of behavior generation schemes, namely, sensory reflex behavior generation and intentional proactive behavior generation, by proposing a dynamic neural network model referred to as stochastic multiple-timescale recurrent neural network (S-MTRNN). The proposed model was employed in an experiment involving robots learning to cooperate with others under the condition of potential unpredictability of the others' behaviors. The results of the learning experiment showed that sensory reflex behavior was generated by a self-organizing probabilistic prediction mechanism when the initial sensitivity characteristics in the network dynamics were not utilized in the learning process. In contrast, proactive behavior with a deterministic prediction mechanism was developed when the initial sensitivity was utilized. It was further shown that in situations where unexpected behaviors of others were observed, the behavioral context was re-situated by adaptation of the internal neural dynamics by means of simple sensory reflexes in the former case. In the latter case, the behavioral context was re-situated by error regression of the internal neural activity rather than by sensory reflex. The role of the top-down and bottom-up interactions in dealing with unexpected situations is discussed.