Towards iterative learning of autonomous robots using ILP

Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) induces first-order clausal theories from learning examples (positive and negative) and knowledge of the domain. Such theories can be used for gradually increasing the understanding of a robot about its world through iterative learning process. In this work we present a method for autonomous creation of negative examples for an ILP learner (i.e. sifting method). We also present a method for managing the iterative learning process (i.e. step transition method) for an autonomous robot that uses the ILP learner for learning. The sifting method uses `out-of-domain´ values of the parameters involved in the learning process to create a set of possible negative examples. From these examples the robot autonomously selects those which allow it to efficiently learn better hypotheses. The step transition method enables the autonomous robot to decide how should it learn the new knowledge such that it can also gain profit from its experience. The robot makes this decision by comparing results of two different learning processes conducted on different data sets produced by the same action of the robot. The proposed methods are developed using the ILP learner Aleph, however they can also be used with other similar ILP learners. We experiment with these methods for learning primitive concepts for a mobile autonomous robot in a simple world. Results of the experiments show that the robot learns meaningful definitions of different physical notions in a hierarchical manner.