Roboception and adaptation in a cognitive robot

In robotics, perception is usually oriented at understanding what is happening in the external world, while few works pay attention to what is occurring in the robot’s body. In this work, we propose an artificial somatosensory system, embedded in a cognitive architecture, that enables a robot to perceive the sensations from its embodiment while executing a task. We called these perceptions roboceptions, and they let the robot act according to its own physical needs in addition to the task demands. Physical information is processed by the robot to behave in a balanced way, determining the most appropriate trade-off between the achievement of the task and its well being. The experiments show the integration of information from the somatosensory system and the choices that lead to the accomplishment of the task. [Display omitted] •An artificial somatosensory system is proposed.•Examples of Current and Energy soft sensors, providing roboceptions from a robotic embodiment, are given.•Reinforcement Learning has been employed to let the robot balance physical needs and task demands.