Towards a Mirror System for the Development of Socially-Mediated Skills

Abstract

We present a system that attempts to model the functional role of mirror neurons, namely the activation of structures in response to both the observation of a demonstrated task, and its generation. Through social situatedness and a set of innate skills, perceptual and motor structures develop for recognition and reproduction of demonstrated actions. We believe this is an implementation towards a mirror system, and we test it on two platforms, one in simulation involving imitation of object interactions, the second on a physical robot learning from a human to follow walls.