Perception of Localized Features during Robotic Sensorimotor Development

The understanding of concepts related to objects are developed over a long period of time in infancy. This paper investigates how physical constraints and changes in visual perception impact on both sensorimotor development for gaze control, as well as the perception of features of interesting regions in the scene. Through a progressive series of developmental stages, simulating ten months of infant development, this paper examines feature perception toward recognition of localized regions in the environment. Results of two experiments, conducted using the iCub humanoid robot, indicate that by following the proposed approach a cognitive agent is capable of scaffolding sensorimotor experiences to allow gradual exploration of the surroundings and local region recognition, in terms of low-level feature similarities. In addition, this paper reports the emergence of vision-related phenomena that match human behaviors found in the developmental psychology literature.