# Symbol Emergence in Robotics: A Survey

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.08973 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1509.08973/

## Key facts

- Cited by 31 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 29 Sep 2015.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 31)

- [Real-World Robot Applications of Foundation Models: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05741/) (2024)
- [World Models and Predictive Coding for Cognitive and Developmental Robotics: Frontiers and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.05832/) (2023)
- [A Review of the Applications of Deep Learning-Based Emergent Communication](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.03302/) (2024)
- [Emergent Communication through Metropolis-Hastings Naming Game with Deep Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.12392/) (2022)
- [Explainable Autonomous Robots: A Survey and Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.02658/) (2021)
- [Generative Emergent Communication: Large Language Model is a Collective World Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.00226/) (2024)
- [Multiagent Multimodal Categorization for Symbol Emergence: Emergent Communication via Interpersonal Cross-modal Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.07194/) (2021)
- [Symbol Emergence and The Solutions to Any Task](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.01281/) (2021)
- [Philosophical Specification of Empathetic Ethical Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10715/) (2021)
- [Recursive Metropolis-Hastings Naming Game: Symbol Emergence in a Multi-agent System based on Probabilistic Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.19761/) (2023)
- [Double Articulation Analyzer with Prosody for Unsupervised Word and Phoneme Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.08199/) (2021)
- [Grounding Spatio-Temporal Language with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.08858/) (2021)
- [Compression, The Fermi Paradox and Artificial Super-Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.01835/) (2021)
- [Metropolis-Hastings algorithm in joint-attention naming game: Experimental semiotics study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.19936/) (2023)
- [Constructive Approach to Bidirectional Influence between Qualia Structure and Language Emergence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.09413/) (2024)
- [The Zero Body Problem: Probing LLM Use of Sensory Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.06393/) (2025)
- [A Whole Brain Probabilistic Generative Model: Toward Realizing Cognitive Architectures for Developmental Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.08183/) (2021)
- [The Artificial Scientist: Logicist, Emergentist, and Universalist Approaches to Artificial General Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.01831/) (2021)
- [Intensional Artificial Intelligence: From Symbol Emergence to Explainable and Empathetic AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.11573/) (2021)
- [Survey and Perspective on Social Emotions in Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09647/) (2021)
- [Unsupervised Lexical Acquisition of Relative Spatial Concepts Using Spoken User Utterances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.08574/) (2021)
- [Symbol Emergence as Inter-personal Categorization with Head-to-head Latent Word](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.15027/) (2022)
- [Models of symbol emergence in communication: a conceptual review and a guide for avoiding local minima](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04544/) (2023)
- [System 0/1/2/3: Quad-process theory for multi-timescale embodied collective cognitive systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06138/) (2025)
- [Neural Variational Learning for Grounded Language Acquisition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.14593/) (2021)
- [Hierarchical Path-planning from Speech Instructions with Spatial Concept-based Topometric Semantic Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.10820/) (2022)
- [SimSiam Naming Game: A Unified Approach for Emergent Communication and Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21803/) (2024)
- [Symbol emergence as interpersonal cross-situational learning: the emergence of lexical knowledge with combinatoriality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.15837/) (2023)
- [Co-Creative Learning via Metropolis-Hastings Interaction between Humans and AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.15468/) (2025)
- [AI Pedagogy: Dialogic Social Learning for Artificial Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21065/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Humans can learn the use of language through physical interaction with their environment and semiotic communication with other people. It is very important to obtain a computational understanding of how humans can form a symbol system and obtain semiotic skills through their autonomous mental development. Recently, many studies have been conducted on the construction of robotic systems and machine-learning methods that can learn the use of language through embodied multimodal interaction with their environment and other systems. Understanding human social interactions and developing a robot that can smoothly communicate with human users in the long term, requires an understanding of the dynamics of symbol systems and is crucially important. The embodied cognition and social interaction of participants gradually change a symbol system in a constructive manner. In this paper, we introduce a field of research called symbol emergence in robotics (SER). SER is a constructive approach towards an emergent symbol system. The emergent symbol system is socially self-organized through both semiotic communications and physical interactions with autonomous cognitive developmental agents, i.e., humans and developmental robots. Specifically, we describe some state-of-art research topics concerning SER, e.g., multimodal categorization, word discovery, and a double articulation analysis, that enable a robot to obtain words and their embodied meanings from raw sensory--motor information, including visual information, haptic information, auditory information, and acoustic speech signals, in a totally unsupervised manner. Finally, we suggest future directions of research in SER.