Ecological Robotics: Controlling Behavior with Optical Flow

There are striking parallels between ecological psychology and new trends in robotics and computer vision, particularly regarding how agents interact with the environment. We present some ideas from ecological psychology, including control laws using optical flow, affordances and action modes, and describe our implementation of these concepts in a small mobile robot which can avoid obstacles and play tag solely using optical flow. This work ties in with those of others arguing for a methodological approach in robotics which foregoes a central model/planner. Ecological psychology may not only contribute to robotics, but robotic implementations in turn provide a test bed for ecological principles and sources of ideas which could be tested in animals and humans.