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To Afford or Not to Afford: A New Formalization of Affordances Toward Affordance-Based Robot Control

Erol ahin

KOVAN Research Laboratory, Department of Computer Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Inönü Bulvari, Ankara, 06531, Turkey, erol{at}ceng.metu.edu.tr

Maya Çakmak

KOVAN Research Laboratory, Department of Computer Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Inönü Bulvari, Ankara, 06531, Turkey, maya{at}cc.gatech.edu

Mehmet R. Doar

KOVAN Research Laboratory, Department of Computer Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Inönü Bulvari, Ankara, 06531, Turkey, dogar{at}ceng.metu.edu.tr

Emre Uur

KOVAN Research Laboratory, Department of Computer Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Inönü Bulvari, Ankara, 06531, Turkey, emre{at}ceng.metu.edu.tr

Göktürk Üçoluk

KOVAN Research Laboratory, Department of Computer Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Inönü Bulvari, Ankara, 06531, Turkey, ucoluk{at}ceng.metu.edu.tr

The concept of affordances was introduced by J. J. Gibson to eXplain how inherent "values" and "meanings" of things in the environment can be directly perceived and how this information can be linked to the action possibilities offered to the organism by the environment. Although introduced in psychology, the concept influenced studies in other fields ranging from human—computer interaction to autonomous robotics. In this article, we first introduce the concept of affordances as conceived by J. J. Gibson and review the use of the term in different fields, with particular emphasis on its use in autonomous robotics. Then, we summarize four of the major formalization proposals for the affordance term. We point out that there are three, not one, perspectives from which to view affordances and that much of the confusion regarding discussions on the concept has arisen from this. We propose a new formalism for affordances and discuss its implications for autonomous robot control. We report preliminary results obtained with robots and link them with these implications.

Key Words: affordance • autonomous robots • control architecture • formalization • perception

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Adaptive Behavior, Vol. 15, No. 4, 447-472 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1059712307084689


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Sahin, E. Articles by Üçoluk, G. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?