Tactile-based curiosity maximizes tactile-rich object-oriented actions even without any extrinsic rewards

Abstract

This study proposed a hypothesis regarding the emergence of object-oriented action via tactile-based curiosity. The hypothesis is such that a curious exploration driven by tactile sensation leads tactile-rich object-oriented actions, while there are no explicit rewards or other designated intentional purposes. Experiments were with the curiosity model named the disagreement model from the reinforcement learning research field and with a simple physics robotic simulation with visual and tactile sensory information. The experimental results indicated that the tactile sensation induces object-oriented actions such as hitting and pecking by the body parts that have tactile sensors. We deduced that the hypothesis could be extended to discussions regarding the acquisition of dexterous skillful object manipulation in human development.