The implementation

Another difference is that Babybot is physically realized as a robot. This essentially means that the ``physics are free''. This nullifies the problems of inaccuracy of simulated physics and perhaps an overly homogeneous or unrealistic environment (such as in the virtual creatures example).

It was constructed to be a test bed for various theories of human development, and is thus constructed with biologic realism in mind. For example, the robot observes the world through a high-resolution fovea and a progressively lower resolution periphery. Furthermore, it includes two microphones, an inertial device and motor encoders (that can effectuate movement for 12 DoF^3.7).

Figure 3.6: The LiraLab Babybot. (a) Babybot interacting with its environment. (b) Schematic version showing its degrees of freedom (DoF)

(a)

(b)