AN ETHOLOGICAL MODEL FOR IMPLEMENTATION IN MOBILE ROBOTS

This article describes a neuroethological model of learning and motiva tion that accounts for many of the behavioral phenomena observed in an imals. Unusual predictions from the model have been tested and shown t o be demonstrable in laboratory Siamese fighting fish. In addition, th e model is sufficiently mathematically well defined to be implementabl e in a robot or in computer simulation. A trial implementation in a mo bile robot was carried out as part of this work. This article describe s a simplified version of the model that was programmed into the robot , a thought experiment designed to show the main features of the model , and the preliminary robot experiments that were carried out. Using r obots for ethological models of animal behavior is interesting for bot h robotics and ethological research: The study of robot autonomy can b e enhanced through an understanding of complex and realistic models of animal autonomy, and ethological research should benefit from a suppl y of guaranteed ''naive'' agents on which rigorous testing of such mod els is tractable.