- Honda Research Institute USA seeks to develop intelligent systems that use curiosity to understand people's needs and empower human capability - Cross-disciplinary research aims to advance breakthroughs in artificial cognition

Seeking to develop a type of artificial intelligence that enables life-long learning with a human-like sense of curiosity, Honda Research Institute USA, Inc. announced a new initiative, the Curious Minded Machine (CMM), to expand its cognitive robotics research. During the three-year program, research teams from the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), and the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington will collaborate with Honda Research Institute to explore the mechanisms of curiosity. With the goal of advancing breakthroughs in artificial cognition, the outcomes of these collaborations will facilitate the synthesis of Curious Minded Machines. Visit the project website at https://CuriousMindedMachine.com.

Developing Curious Minded Machines to Expand People's Potential
Honda Research Institute defines a Curious Minded Machine as a robot or intelligent system that learns continuously in a human-like, curiosity-driven way. By developing different models of curiosity to understand how children "learn to learn" about the world, the Curious Minded Machine research collaboration aims to create new types of machines that can acquire an interest in learning and knowledge, the ability to learn and discover, and the ability to interact with others. This type of intelligent system could extract intention from interactions instead of mimicking without understanding the purpose.

For example, just as coaches and trainers seek to optimize human performance, the Curious Minded Machine could enhance an individual's personal and professional development. By observing human interactions and tasks, the Curious Minded Machine could identify better ways to complete tasks or help people achieve their goals.

"Our ultimate goal is to create new types of machines that can acquire an interest in learning and knowledge, and the ability to interact with the world and others," said Soshi Iba, a principal scientist at Honda Research Institute USA, Inc. "We want to develop Curious Minded Machines that use curiosity to serve the common good by understanding people's needs, empowering human capability, and ultimately addressing complex societal issues."

The Curious Minded Machine initiative explores the integration of machines with humans and society, and is one of Honda's approaches to realizing Cooperative Intelligence (CI). The CI concept is artificial intelligence embedded in a social context that enables people to build confidence and trust with artificial systems. Expanding on Honda's 3E (Empower, Experience, Empathy) Robotics Concept, announced at CES in January 2018, the Curious Minded Machine program highlights Honda's vision of a society where robots and people can work together while leveraging each other's strengths; grow together by interacting with each other; and achieve a mutual empathy to support human activities.

Network of Excellence
In collaboration with Honda Research Institute, multi-disciplinary teams of researchers from MIT's CSAIL, Penn Engineering, and the University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering will explore new approaches, methodologies, and ideas to identify promising research and results that will form the basis for more detailed investigations and demonstrations.

The focus areas for each research team are:

MIT CSAIL: The team is addressing a key limitation in robotic action planning by focusing on establishing a causal theory of sensor percepts to predict future percepts and the effect of future actions.
Penn Engineering: The team is focusing on today's challenges in machine perception by learning from biological systems, and applying an embodied, active and efficient approach to acquiring representations of the surrounding world and actions.
University of Washington Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering: The team is addressing the challenges of enabling robots to work effectively in human environments. By taking a page from child-learning through exploration, the team aims to construct a mathematical model of curiosity.
At the conclusion of the three-year program, each team is expected to show tangible results in the form of working examples, prototypes, or demonstrations that will serve as the foundation for realizing Curious Minded Machines.

Honda Research Institute USA, Inc.
Honda Research Institute USA, Inc. was established in 2003 as North America's advanced research center that provides innovative solutions to complex problems with direct applications to Honda's current and future technology roadmap. The team of scientists and engineers at Honda Research Institute create technologies, often generated through a scientific process, and apply them to real situations, addressing more than just abstract principles. Its core principles include maintaining a commitment to high quality and innovative research that supports Honda's short and long-term strategy, and fostering an open innovation model that establishes partnerships and alliances with academia and the private sector.

Location: Mountain View, CA and Columbus, OH, USA
Representative: Hiroshi Tsujino, president
Capitalization ratio: 100% Honda R&D Co., Ltd.

MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
The Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is MIT's largest research lab and one of the world's most important centers for information technology research. With over 500 researchers from 5 schools and 11 different departments, CSAIL has played a key role in the computing revolution, helping develop time-sharing, massively parallel computers, public key encryption, the mass commercialization of robots, and much of the technology underlying the ARPANet, Internet and the World Wide Web. With more than 60 research groups working on hundreds of diverse projects, researchers focus on discovering novel ways to make systems and machines smarter, easier to use, more secure, and more efficient.

University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science
The School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania is comprised of six academic departments and numerous interdisciplinary centers, institutes, and laboratories. Penn Engineering's goal is to prepare students for leadership roles in a technological world where creativity, critical quantitative thinking, effective communication skills and a strong commitment to humane values are essential.

An Ivy League university located in the city of Philadelphia, Penn was the first of its kind, a university created for the purpose of building knowledge that would benefit the future of our country and mankind. Established in 1852 as the School of Mines, Arts and Manufactures, Penn Engineering is among the oldest engineering programs in the United States. Today, Penn Engineering is one of the University's twelve schools, and offers degrees at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels.

University of Washington Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
Consistently ranked among the top computer science programs in the nation, the University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering educates tomorrow's innovators, conducts high-impact research to advance core and emerging areas of the field, transfers new discoveries to society, and leads a broad range of multi-disciplinary initiatives that demonstrate the transformative power of computing. The University of Washington is one of the world's preeminent public universities; it has been among the top five American universities in receipt of federal research funding each year since 1974. Learn more at cs.washington.edu.