The relevance of causation in robotics: A review, categorization, and analysis

Abstract

Abstract In this article, we investigate the role of causal reasoning in robotics research. Inspired by a categorization of human causal cognition, we propose a categorization of robot causal cognition. For each category, we identify related earlier work in robotics and also connect to research in other sciences. While the proposed categories mainly cover the sense–plan–act level of robotics, we also identify a number of higher-level aspects and areas of robotics research where causation plays an important role, for example, understandability, machine ethics, and robotics research methodology. Overall, we conclude that causation underlies several problem formulations in robotics, but it is still surprisingly absent in published research, in particular when it comes to explicit mentioning and using of causal concepts and terms. We discuss the reasons for, and consequences of, this and hope that this article clarifies the broad and deep connections between causal reasoning and robotics and also by pointing at the close connections to other research areas. At best, this will also contribute to a “causal revolution” in robotics.