Intelligent Behavior in Animals and Robots

Intelligence takes many forms. This exciting study explores the novel insight, basedon well-established ethological principles, that animals, humans, and autonomous robots can all beanalyzed as multi-task autonomous control systems. Biological adaptive systems, the authors argue,can in fact provide a better understanding of intelligence and rationality than that provided bytraditional AI.In this technically sophisticated, clearly written investigation of robot-animalanalogies, McFarland and Bösser show that a bee's accuracy in navigating on a cloudy day and amoth's simple but effective hearing mechanisms have as much to teach us about intelligent behavioras human models. In defining intelligent behavior, what matters is the behavioral outcome, not thenature of the mechanism by which the outcome is achieved. Similarly, in designing robots capable ofintelligent behavior, what matters is the behavioral outcome.McFarland and Bösser address theproblem of how to assess the consequences of robot behavior in a way that is meaningful in terms ofthe robot's intended role, comparing animal and robot in relation to rational behavior, goalseeking, task accomplishment, learning, and other important theoretical issues.David McFarland isReader in Animal Behaviour at the University of Oxford. Thomas Bösser is Head of the Man MachineResearch Group at Westfälische Wilhelms Universität, in Münster, and a partner in the consultingfirm Advanced Concepts.