The AAAI 2008 Robotics and Creativity Workshop

in terms. Developments in mechanical control and complex motion planning have enabled robots to become almost commonplace in situations requiring precise but menial, tedious, and repetitive tasks. Recent robotics research has targeted the mechanical and computational challenges inherent in performing a much broader range of tasks autonomously. These problems are less well-defined, requiring greater intelligence, commonsense reasoning, and oftentimes novel solutions. By most definitions, creativity (the generation of novel and useful ideas) is necessary for intelligence; thus research efforts focusing on robotics and creativity are also efforts toward artificial intelligence. As robots and computer physical systems become more capable, they are increasingly useful in the study of creativity itself. Furthermore, machines have the capacity to expand the human creative palette, and robots have been embraced by many in the arts community for the development and execution of new creative works. Robots have been incorporated into live performances, some with capabilities that exceed the limitations of most human performers (such as the speed of playing a musical instrument). Robots could potentially be creativity-enhancing tools for artists and performers, for example, serving as proxies for human performers in rehearsals to prototype and refine artistic ideas. Robotics could also be invaluable as a platform for studying human creativity through controlled, repeatable experiments. As a physical, numerically controlled platform, a robot can be asked to perform actions precisely and repeatedly, whereas a human performer can not. Furthermore, by recreating components of a human-generated performance exactly, we could examine aspects of creativity: When is an action perceived as being a mere Reports