Webb: Robot Models -- BBS Call for Commentators
PSYCOLOQUY
[Please note that this paper was in fact accepted and
archived to the web in February 2001 but the recent
move of BBS to New York delayed the Call until now.]
Can robots make good models of biological behaviour?
by
Barbara Webb
http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Webb/
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Can robots make good models of biological behaviour?
Barbara Webb
Centre for Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience
Department of Psychology
University of Stirling
Stirling FK9 4LA
Scotland, U.K.
b.h....@stir.ac.uk
www.stir.ac.uk/psychology/Staff/bhw1/
KEYWORDS: models; simulation; animal behaviour; neuroethology;
robotics; realism; levels.
ABSTRACT: How should biological behaviour be modelled? A relatively
new approach is to investigate problems in neuroethology by building
physical robot models of biological sensorimotor systems. The
explication and justification of this approach are here placed within a
framework for describing and comparing models in the behavioural and
biological sciences. First, simulation models - the representation of a
hypothesis about a target system - are distinguished from several other
relationships also termed 'modelling' in discussions of scientific
explanation. Seven dimensions on which simulation models can differ are
defined and distinctions between them discussed:
(1) Relevance: whether the model tests and generates hypotheses
applicable to biology.
(2) Level: the elemental units of the model in the hierarchy from
atoms to societies.
(3) Generality: the range of biological systems the model can
represent.
(4) Abstraction: the complexity, relative to the target, or amount of
detail included in the model.
(5) Structural accuracy: how well the model represents the actual
mechanisms underlying the behaviour.
(6) Performance match: to what extent the model behaviour matches the
target behaviour
(7) Medium: the physical basis by which the model is implemented
No specific position in the space of models thus defined is the only
correct one, but a good modelling methodology should be explicit about
its position and the justification for that position. It is argued that
in building robot models biological relevance is more effective than
loose biological inspiration; multiple levels can be integrated; that
generality cannot be assumed but might emerge from studying specific
instances; abstraction is better done by simplification than
idealisation; accuracy can be approached through iterations of complete
systems; that the model should be able to match and predict target
behaviour; and that a physical medium can have significant advantages.
These arguments reflect the view that biological behaviour needs to be
studied and modelled in context, that is in terms of the real problems
faced by real animals in real environments.
http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Webb/
___________________________________________________________
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