Abstract

its performance. In fact, we use the expression robot shaping to denote the use of learning as a means to translate suggestions coming from an external trainer into an effective control strategy that allows a robot to achieve a goal. We borrowed the term shaping from experimental psychology (Skinner, 1938), because training an artificial robot somewhat resembles what experimental psychologists do in their laboratories, when they train an experimental subject to produce a predefined response. The important point, which differentiates our approach from most current research on learning autonomous agents, is that the trainer plays a fundamental role in the learning process: most of the book is aimed at showing how to use a trainer to develop control systems for simulated and real robots. We also use the term behavior engineering to characterize a new technological discipline, the objective of which is to provide techniques, methodologies and t

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