MIRROR COGNITION
Seeing one’s image in the mirror, to identify the self is a known technique used in psychology. Human babies cannot pass the mirror test until they are around eighteen months old, and in animals only primates, elephants, and dolphins have been able to clear the test. Mirror cognition is seen to improve with incremental learning, and sets the tone to assess self-awareness in synthetic agents.
Mirror cognition in robots has been realized through experiments at Meiji University with Khepera robots. The Kheperas are controlled by ANN. The behaviour of the Khepera is more or less motor action and in front of a mirror, it interprets the image and steadies the behavior of the motor. Simultaneously, it keeps a tab on the distance between the object and the image - too little and the robot has to back up; too much, and it has to advance forward. The association of these two processes leads to the modal handshake between image and the motor action. When the motor behaviour of the robot and its image are the same the blue LED lights up.
