Case studies of applying Gibson's ecological approach to mobile robots

Gibson's ecological approach to perception has recently received significan t attention in the robotics literature, The approach relies on the identifi cation and application of affordances for a behavior. Unfortunately, determ ining suitable affordances has been treated as an art rather than a science . This paper presents a methodology for deciding whether an affordance-base d approach should be pursued for a specific behavior and for isolating a re liable affordance, Three case studies on three mobile robots are presented which used this methodology successfully. The case studies illustrate the a dvantages and limitations of affordances, as well as offer practical insigh ts into applying the ecological approach.