Creating Intelligent Humanoid Robots Using the OpenCog AGI Architecture Research Proposal for the Epstein Foundation Ben Goertzel --- January 16, 2013 Executive Summary The core R&D goal of the proposed project is to use the OpenCog system to make a Hanson Robokind robot interact with humans in a manner evincing basic understanding of its environment. This includes simple English speech interaction regarding objects and events the robot perceives, and actions the robot undertakes. This involves taking OpenCog functionalities currently being prototyped for the control of virtual-world characters and using them in a robotics context. It also involves implementation of some recent, fundamentally new ideas involving the integration of symbolic Al systems (such as OpenCog's probabilistic logic engine) and subsymbolic Al systems (such as the DeSTIN computer vision system). This is viewed as an initial step toward the larger goal of creating a "robot toddler" with the rough cognitive capabilities of a 3 year old human child - which in turn is viewed as a step in a longer project aimed at creating software and robotic systems with general intelligence at the human level and ultimately beyond. If successful, the proposed research will constitute a major step in the direction of these more ambitious goals, and will constitute a dramatic step forward in generally-intelligent robotic communication, learning and interaction. This project has recently been funded for two years (2013-2014) by the Hong Kong government, in the total amount of HKD$2.6M (roughly USD$342,000) including overheads (and requiring a matching USD$38K corporate contribution). This proposal seeks additional funding to complement the government funding, so as to accelerate the project and improve the odds of success and the quality of the work. The government funding already achieved will pay for a team of 6 junior researchers/engineers (PhD student or junior programmer level), worki