Towards coping and imagination for cognitive agents

Current technical cognitive systems cannot react on unforeseen situations. In particular, they fail if their repertoire of actions is insufficient to solve a problem or to overcome a barrier. In this paper we propose a novel `coping apparatus´ for cognitive agents which is capable of conceiving entirely new actions, simulating their prospective effect in the world and learning from their actual effect. The apparatus also provides the agent with `fantasy´ which allows to imagine unseen world states and to develop a strategy how to try to get there.