A role for immunology in 'next generation' robots.

Much of current robot research is about learning tasks in which the task to be achieved is pre-specified, a suitable technology for the task is chosen and the learning process is experimentally investigated. A more interesting research question is how can a robot be provided with an architecture that would enable it to developmentally 'grow-up' and accomplish tasks by building on basic built-in capabilities. Previous work by the auhtors defined the requirements of a robot architecture that would enable this to happen. In this paper, we describe how some components of such an architecture can be achieved using an immune network model and we present preliminary results that show the plausibility of the suggested approach.