ROBOVERINE: A human-inspired neural robotic process model of active visual search and scene grammar in naturalistic environments

Raul Grieben, Stephan Sehring, Jan Tekülve, John P. Spencer, Gregor Schöner

Abstract: We present ROBOVERINE, a neural dynamic robotic active vision process model of selective visual attention and scene grammar in naturalistic environments. The model addresses significant challenges for cognitive robotic models of visual attention: combined bottom-up salience and top-down feature guidance, combined overt and covert attention, coordinate transformations, two forms of inhibition of return, finding objects outside of the camera frame, integrated space-and object-based analysis, minimally supervised few-shot continuous online learning for recognition and guidance templates, and autonomous switching between exploration and visual search. Furthermore, it incorporates a neural process account of scene grammar — prior knowledge about the relation between objects in the scene — to reduce the search space and increase search efficiency. The model also showcases the strength of bridging two frameworks: Deep Neural Networks for feature extractions and Dynamic Field Theory for cognitive operations.