The purposive approach to computer vision has been much discussed in recent years, but there have been few tests of the viability of the paradigm in a working vision system. We have tested the approach in the context of vision for a mobile robot performing tasks in a typical, unaltered o ce environment. In particular, we examine the approach in the context of a trash collection task; the task t...

We present an approach for building an affine representation of an unknown curved object viewed under orthographic projection from images of its occluding contour. It is based on the observation that the projection of a point on a curved, featureless surface can be computed along a special viewing direction that does not belong to the point’s tangent plane. We show that by circumnavigating the ...

Skinner's major goal in writing The BehaviorofOrganisms (1938) was to extend the rigor, simplicity, and lawfulness of the study of spinal reflexes (Crozier & Hoagland, 1934; Magnus, 1924; Sherrington, 1906) to the study of purposive behavior. As Skinner (1938) notes, "the older study of spinal reflexes and the modern study of behavior are logically and to a great extent historically continuous"...

Meta-language utterances, i.e. utterances about other utterances, are ubiquitous in every type of human discourse, from unconstrained multi-party conversations to task-oriented man-machine dialogues. Several examples of meta-language communication are analyzed, identifying the complexities that a cognitively plausible discourse model should address. Meta-language utterances are investigated in ...

The term navigation refers to the capability of a system to move autonomously in its environment, by using its own sensors. The more specific term visual navigation is used for the process of motion control based on the analysis of data gathered by visual sensors. The field of visual navigation is of particular importance mainly because of the rich perceptual input provided by vision. The probl...

as to where between the two poles of behaviorism and structuralism they will finally see their science find its place. It has become ever more evident that psychology after all is one; that structuralism has long since been at its most structuralistic, and that behaviorism, born more than full-grown, has been rapidly progressing from senescence toward a more normal adolescence. Thia is hopeful,...

Neural processes that direct an animal's actions toward environmental goals are critical elements for understanding behavior. The hypothalamus is closely associated with motivated behaviors required for survival and reproduction. Intense feeding, drinking, aggressive, and sexual behaviors can be produced by a simple neuronal stimulus applied to discrete hypothalamic regions. What can these "evo...