Action Development and integration in a humanoid iCub robot: How language exposure and self-talk facilitate action development

One major challenge in evolutionary/developmental robotics is constituted by the need to identify design principles that allow robots to acquire progressively more complex action skills by integrating them into their existing behavioral repertoire. In this paper, we present a novel method that address this objective, the theoretical background behind the proposed methodology, and the results obtained in a series of experiments in which a simulated iCub robot develops lowerlevel and then integrated higher-level action skills. Moreover, we illustrate how the development of integrated action skill is facilitated by language exposure and self-talk