Episodic Memory Multimodal Learning for Robot Sensorimotor Map Building and Navigation

In this paper, an unsupervised learning model of episodic memory is proposed. The proposed model, enhanced episodic memory adaptive resonance theory (EEM-ART), categorizes and encodes experiences of a robot to the environment and generates a cognitive map. EEM-ART consists of multilayer ART networks to extract novel events and encode spatio-temporal connection as episodes by incrementally generating cognitive neurons. The model connects episodes to construct a sensorimotor map for the robot to continuously perform path planning and goal navigation. Experimental results for a mobile robot indicate that EEM-ART can process multiple sensory sources for learning events and encoding episodes simultaneously. The model overcomes perceptual aliasing and robot localization by recalling the encoded episodes with a new anticipation function and generates sensorimotor map to connect episodes together to execute tasks continuously with little to no human intervention.