Motor Knowledge Representation

The motor control problem is considered in the framework of knowledge representation. In the AI/Robotic world, a formal model for Motor knowledge should f i l l a gap between task planning and low level robot languages; such model should be able to "v i r tual ize" the robot and the interaction with the environment so that the planner could produce (and rely on) high level abstract actions, characterized by high autonomy and s k i l l . The paper discusses some general aspects about actions, actors, and scenes, and describes the NEM language, which is able to represent and animate humanoids in a scene and is meant to provide a software laboratory for experimenting with action schemas.