XIA-MAN: An Extensible, Integrative Architecture for Intelligent Humanoid Robotics

The XIA-MAN architecture for intelligent humanoid robot control is proposed, a novel design in which perception and action are achieved via a combination of GA-evolved neural-net modules with existing open-source software packages; and cognition is achieved via the OpenCog Prime framework. XML is used to communicate between components, enabling simple pluggability of additional or modified components, and leading to the name XIA-MAN (eXtensible Integrative Artificial Man). XIA-MAN’s neural net modules are used to convert between high-dimensional numerical representations denoting perceptions and actions, and probabilistic symbolic representations suitable for cognitive manipulation. XIA-MAN’s Cognition Engine is used, at each time cycle, to choose a high-level behavioral procedure that is believes is likely to enable the robot to achieve its goals in the current context. This provides a pragmatic approach to achieving intelligent robot functionality given currently available technologies; and the architecture is conceptually reminiscent of the complexly interconnected multimodular architecture of the brain. Initial work involves an incarnation of the XIA-MAN architecture using the Nao humanoid robot, to create an intelligent humanoid called XiaoNao.