Robots rely on sensors to provide them with information about their surroundings. However, high-quality sensors can be extremely expensive and cost-prohibitive. Thus many robotic systems must make due with lower-quality sensors. Here we demonstrate via a case study how modeling a sensor can improve its efficacy when employed within a Bayesian inferential framework. As a test bed we employ a robotic arm that is designed to autonomously take its own measurements using an inexpensive LEGO light sensor to estimate the position and radius of a white circle on a black field. The light sensor integrates the light arriving from a spatially distributed region within its field of view weighted by its Spatial Sensitivity Function (SSF). We demonstrate that by incorporating an accurate model of the light sensor SSF into the likelihood function of a Bayesian inference engine, an autonomous system can make improved inferences about its surroundings. The method presented here is data-based, fairly general, and made with plug-and play in mind so that it could be implemented in similar problems.

We are working to develop automated intelligent agents, which can act and react as learning machines with minimal human intervention. To accomplish this, an intelligent agent is viewed as a question-asking machine, which is designed by coupling the processes of inference and inquiry to form a model-based learning unit. In order to select maximally-informative queries, the intelligent agent needs to be able to compute the relevance of a question. This is accomplished by employing the inquiry calculus, which is dual to the probability calculus, and extends information theory by explicitly requiring context. Here, we consider the interaction between two question-asking intelligent agents, and note that there is a potential information redundancy with respect to the two questions that the agents may choose to pose. We show that the information redundancy is minimized by maximizing the joint entropy of the questions, which simultaneously maximizes the relevance of each question while minimizing the mutual information between them. Maximum joint entropy is therefore an important principle of information-based collaboration, which enables intelligent agents to efficiently learn together.

The scientific method relies on the iterated processes of inference and inquiry. The inference phase consists of selecting the most probable models based on the available data; whereas the inquiry phase consists of using what is known about the models to select the most relevant experiment. Optimizing inquiry involves searching the parameterized space of experiments to select the experiment that promises, on average, to be maximally informative. In the case where it is important to learn about each of the model parameters, the relevance of an experiment is quantified by Shannon entropy of the distribution of experimental outcomes predicted by a probable set of models. If the set of potential experiments is described by many parameters, we must search this high-dimensional entropy space. Brute force search methods will be slow and computationally expensive. We present an entropy-based search algorithm, called nested entropy sampling, to select the most informative experiment for efficient experimental design. This algorithm is inspired by Skilling's nested sampling algorithm used in inference and borrows the concept of a rising threshold while a set of experiment samples are maintained. We demonstrate that this algorithm not only selects highly relevant experiments, but also is more efficient than brute force search. Such entropic search techniques promise to greatly benefit autonomous experimental design.