Understanding the sense of self through robotics.
Science robotics October 30, 2024 Tony J Prescott, Kai Vogeley, Agnieszka Wykowska 11 citations
Robotics contributes to the scientific understanding of the self by building embodied models and using robots as experimental probes. This review covers research on the minimal self, the extended self, and disorders of the self, highlighting how key phenomena of the self can be generated in robots with suitable sensor and actuator systems and a layered cognitive architecture involving predictive models. The approach allows testing hypotheses about the self's development, behavioral manifestation, and diversity across humans, animals, and potentially machines. Future directions and open challenges in understanding the self through constructing its components in artificial systems are discussed.