HAW: Lesson - Big Idea 2: Representation and Reasoning

A robot strikes the pose of the famous Rodin statue "The Thinker"Big Idea 2: Representation and Reasoning

Think About It...

How can a computer think or consider a difficult problem involving reasoning?

Thinking Robots

Image note: Look at the image to the right. There is a famous statue called The Thinker by the artist Auguste Rodin, in which a human sits in a pose with fist to chin - clearly deep in thought. Is it jarring to see a mechanical representation of this act? Can robots think?

Representation

Now that we have explored the perception abilities of autonomous vehicles and robots, let’s navigate to Big Idea 2 – Representation and Reasoning. Representation is defined as a way of encoding information. For example, a map is a representation of a territory. A piece of sheet music is a representation of a melody.

Computers use various types of representations to encode and manipulate many kinds of information. One of the most basic foundations of computing is the concept of binary: using 1s and 0s to represent just about any kind of information. Watch the following video about how the binary system is used to represent data.

Video Lesson - How Computing Works

Now that we've talked a bit about representation, let's see the actual process of how computers calculate. The following video, presented by Science Out Loud, shows the physical process that is happening inside a computer on a scale that we can watch happen. From this basic reasoning process, computers (and AI) have grown ever more powerful and extremely fast.

Reflection on Perception and Reasoning

Remember, in order to be effective and efficient in perception, representation, and reasoning AI is trained using large amounts of data. Our current and future computational power when processing allows us to build robust AI models.

[CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Links to an external site.] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION - INTENDED ONLY FOR USE WITHIN LESSON.
jackie_vfx/Shutterstock.com. Image used under license from Shutterstock.com and may not be repurposed.