Robotics & Artificial Intelligence
PCT lends itself well to the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics because it provides an exact mathematical framework to model psychological processes. Bill Powers explained the benefits of PCT in several key articles in Byte Magazine in 1979. See the quick links menu.
If you want to see PCT in action, then view Richard Kennaway’s online PCT demonstration of a six-legged robot called Archy.
Roger K Moore has created a simple PCT robot that demonstrates some of the first principles of language development in an online article.
Robot models built using PCT are very simple in design and include few components compared to some of the complex models that try to model specific behaviours rather than using negative feedback to control perception. This suggests that PCT is parsimonious – and may be hitting on what systems are used in nature.
In recent talks at Universities of Sheffield and Manchester, Warren Mansell has summarised some of the emerging work using computer simulations based PCT across the social sciences. Click here for the slides.
A simple PCT robot made at home by Rupert Young is shown in the video below. The diagram of its functioning is also provided:
Information Management
Perceptual Control Theory has been utilised in human-computer interfaces to facilitate information management on mobile devices, and to enhance security.
Emulating Biological Systems
PCT is grounded in physics and biology. This means that it can be utilised effectively in robotic systems that directly emulate human systems. A pioneering example is the work by Robin Hofe at University of Sheffield on AnTon - the animatronic tongue and vocal tract model, illustrated below.
Human Factors
It is increasingly important to develop the most safe and efficient ways for people to use computers and other forms of technology. PCT has proved particularly helpful in this regard. One example is the work by Martin Taylor, Phillip Farrell and colleagues on human-computer interfaces in helicopters. Another is the use of PCT in an operations room for military ships (Chow et al., 2007).
A recent paper by van Erp and colleagues in the Netherlands has used PCT to understand how user systems can anticipate the human user's intentions and their varying degrees of effort, vigilance, workload and engagement.
Task analysis refers to how we can break down tasks into their parts, so that they can be repeated by people, with minimal error. Rick Marken has developed a way to do task analysis using PCT – called PERCOLATE. It breaks down a task into perceptions to be controlled at different levels.
