Performance in Robot Interaction via Mental Imagery (PRIMI)

下一代个人机器人系统需要达到一定的认知和运动智能水平，在任何环境下都能提供自主性，与人类有效互动，并适应各种开放的动态情况。机器人被期望能够预测由人类行为引起的感知和功能变化，并在考虑到自身能力和局限性的情况下复制人类活动。主流AI和机器人范式无法实现所需的类人物理性能和推理，因为它们缺少所需的身体（机器人）和心灵（AI）的协同设计，并且基于低效的计算和传感资源，无法扩展到所需的水平。为了超越目前的可能性，PRIMI将协同结合神经生理学、心理学、机器智能、认知机电一体化、神经形态工程和类人机器人技术的研究和开发，建立更高认知能力的发展模型——心理意象、抽象推理和心理理论——由节能的事件驱动计算和传感推动。它将为下一代自主交互技术产生一个新的统一概念，能够与实时学习和适应进行更自主、更快、更安全、更精确的交互，这要归功于精神上代表自己、物理和社会世界、类似体验和模拟行动的能力的整合。PRIMI的目标是引导人工智能和机器人技术的范式转变，创造真正自主的社交互动机器人，这将为改变个人机器人服务提供新的技术视角。作为相关场景中技术进步的原理证明，神经形态类人机器人原型将在机器人主导的中风幸存者物理康复的临床试点研究中得到验证。

The next generation of personal robotic systems needs to reach a level of cognition and motor intelligence that provides autonomy in any environment, effective interaction with humans, and adaptation of their actions to a broad range of open, dynamic situations. Robots are expected to be able to predict perceptual and functional changes that result from human actions and replicate human activities taking into consideration their own capabilities and limitations. The required human-like physical performance and reasoning cannot be achieved with the mainstream AI and robotics paradigms, because they are missing the required co-design of body (robot) and mind (AI) and are based on inefficient computing and sensing resources that cannot be scaled up to the required level. To go beyond what is currently possible, PRIMI will synergistically combine research and development in neurophysiology, psychology, machine intelligence, cognitive mechatronics, neuromorphic engineering, and humanoid robotics to build developmental models of higher-cognition abilities – mental imagery, abstract reasoning, and theory of mind – boosted by energy-efficient event-driven computing and sensing. It will produce a new unifying concept for the next generation of autonomous interaction technologies, capable of more autonomous, faster, safer, and precise interaction with real-time learning and adaptation, thanks to the integration of the capabilities to mentally represent themselves, the physical and social worlds, resemble experiences and simulate actions. PRIMI’s ambition is to induce a paradigm shift in AI and robotics to create truly autonomous socially interactive robots, which will offer new technological perspectives for transforming personal robotic services. As a proof-of-principle of the technological advancement in a relevant scenario, prototypes of neuromorphic humanoid robots will be validated in clinical pilot studies of robot-led physical rehabilitation of stroke survivors.