ROS Robotics Projects - Second Edition

Explore versus exploit

Let's imagine that the baby is actually walking to find their way toward a toy and has ended up in the bedroom. There are a couple of toys in that room the baby sees, which might make them happy. What if the baby tried to walk outside the bedroom and moved toward the storeroom where there is a basket full of toys? The baby would be much happier than with the few toys in the bedroom.

The former scenario, where the baby walked into the bedroom in a random manner and settled having found the toys, is called exploitation. Here, the baby has seen the toys and hence logically feels comfortable. But if the baby tried to experiment by searching outside that room, they may have ended up in the storeroom, where there are more ...