Non Expensive Mobile Robot for Sensor Based Research on Artificial Cognition

Research on Embodied Cognition constantly faces two difficulties related to hardware: either robotic platforms are too expensive for the University budget and/or robots were designed for industrial purposes, favoring fine control and reproducibility at the cost of restricted customization for sensor readings and movement control. In order to fully explore new venues for machine learning algorithms linking the pathways from sensation to cognition, back to acting, the physical architecture of the robot must be open and its programming easily altered without putting humans or robots at risk. In the search for a friendly robotic environment for research on cognition, a simple architecture is presented here, with a cost around $10,000 MX or $600 US.