Can Emotion Help Robot Do a Better Job?

Can robot use emotions to do a better job? Mehdi Dastani and colleagues at Utrech University in the Netherlands are "giving" robot 22 artificial emotions like anger, hope, fear and joy, to see if "feelings" allow it to work better.

The Dutch scientists believe that assuming these "emotional" states could help robots perform complicated tasks without getting too bogged-down in planning and analysis. During navigation, for example, many sophisticated robots repeatedly analyse their position and strategy, requires plenty of computer power.

A robot with artificial emotions could perform much less analysis, relying instead on its "feelings". Once it sees that its current plan is going wrong it would become "fearful" and this would modify its behaviour from that point onwards.

Ultimately, Dastani thinks robot "emotions" could help machines interact with people in more sophisticated ways.

Link