Using multiple personas in service robots to improve exploration strategies when mapping new environmnets

In this paper we describe our work on geometrical and perception models for service robots that will support people living in future Digital Homes. We present a model that captures descriptions of both the physical and perceptual environment space. We present a summary of experimental results that show that these models are well suited to support service robot navigation in complex domestic worlds, such as digital homes. Finally, by way of introducing some of our current, but unpublished, research we present some ideas from philosophy and psychoanalytic studies which we use to speculate on the possibility of extending this model to include representations of persistent experiences in the form of multiple personas which we hypothesize might be applied to improve the performance of services robots by providing a mechanism to vary the balance of current and past experiences in control decisions which appear to serve people well.