  This paper presents a series of experiments in collective social robotics,
spanning more than 10 years, with the long-term aim of building embodied models
of (aspects) of cultural evolution. Initial experiments demonstrated the
emergence of behavioural traditions in a group of social robots programmed to
imitate each other's behaviours (we call these Copybots). These experiments
show that the noisy (i.e. less than perfect fidelity) imitation that comes for
free with real physical robots gives rise naturally to variation in social
learning. More recent experimental work extends the robots' cognitive
capabilities with simulation-based internal models, equipping them with a
simple artificial theory of mind. With this extended capability we explore, in
our current work, social learning not via imitation but robot-robot
storytelling, in an effort to model this very human mode of cultural
transmission. In this paper we give an account of the methods and inspiration
for these experiments, the experiments and their results, and an outline of
possible directions for this programme of research. It is our hope that this
paper stimulates not only discussion but suggestions for hypotheses to test
with the Storybots.
