Apparatus and methods for training of robots

A self-contained robotic apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

• a platform comprising a motor;
• a first sensor component configured to provide a signal conveying a video frame comprising a plurality of pixels;
• a second sensor component configured to provide a binary sensor signal characterized by one of two states;
• a memory component configured to store training sets, a given training set comprising an instance of the video frame, an instance of the binary signal, and an instance of a motor control indication configured to cause the robot to execute an action;
• one or more processors configured to operate a random iv-nearest neighbors learning process to determine a motor control indication by at least:
• determining a subset of features comprising the binary signal and a set of pixels randomly selected from the plurality of pixels;
• scaling individual pixels of the set of pixels by a scaling factor;
• scaling features of the subset by a scaling factor;
• comparing individual scaled features of the subset to corresponding features of individual ones of the training sets;
• based on the comparison, determining a similarity measure for a given training set, the similarity measure characterizing similarity between features of the subset and features of the given training set;
• based on an evaluation of the similarity measure, selecting one or more of the training sets;
• determining one or more potential control signals for the robot, individual ones of the one or more potential control signals being associated with a corresponding training set;
• and
• determining the control signal based on a transformation obtained from the one or more potential control signals;
• wherein:
• individual ones of the plurality of training feature sets comprise features of the first type and at least one feature of the second type;
• individual ones of the plurality of training feature sets are obtained during training operation of the robot, the training operation being performed responsive to receiving a training signal from the robot;
• individual ones of the one or more potential control signals being determined based on the training signal and the features of the given training set.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions being executable by a processor to perform a method of selecting an outcome of a plurality of outcomes, the method comprising:

• determining a history of sensory input;
• applying a transformation to an instance of the sensory input, the transformation configured, based on analysis of the history, to produce scaled input;
• determining a set of features comprising features of a first type randomly selected from the scaled input and at least one feature of a second type;
• comparing individual features of the set to corresponding features of a plurality of training feature sets, individual ones of the plurality of training feature sets comprising a number of training features, the number being equal to or greater than the quantity of features within the set of features;
• based on the comparison, determining a similarity measure for a given training set of the plurality of training feature sets, the similarity measure characterizing similarity between features of the subset and features of the given training set;
• responsive to the similarity measure breaching a threshold, selecting one or more training sets from the plurality of training sets;
• determining one or more potential control signals for the robot, individual ones of the one or more potential control signals being associated with a corresponding training set of the plurality of training sets;
• and
• determining the control signal based on a transformation obtained from the one or more potential control signals;
• wherein:
• individual ones of the plurality of training feature sets comprise features of the first type and at least one feature of the second type;
• individual ones of the plurality of training feature sets are obtained during training operation of the robot, the training operation being performed responsive to receiving a training signal from the robot;
• and
• individual ones of the one or more potential control signals being determined based on the training signal and the features of the given training set.