Anchoring symbols to sensory data

Abstract: Intelligent agentsembedded in physical environments need the ability to connect, orDQFKRU, the symbols used to perform abstract reasoning to thephysical entities which these symbols refer to. Anchoring must dealwith indexical and objective references, definite and indefiniteidentifiers, and temporary impossibility to percept physicalentities. Futhermore it needs to rely on sensor data which isinherently affected by uncertainty, and to deal with ambiguities.In this thesis, we outline the concept of anchoring and itsfunctionalities. Moreover we show examples of uses of anchoringtechniques in two domains: an autonomous airborne vehicle fortraffic surveillance and a mobile ground vehicle performingnavigation tasks.