Can Emotion Help Robot Do a Better Job?

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on August 23, 2007 at 8:04 am


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.

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COMMENT

6 comments to "Can Emotion Help Robot Do a Better Job?"

  1. when's lunch?
    August 23rd, 2007 at 9:50 am

    SKYNET!!!

  2. eric
    August 23rd, 2007 at 10:27 am

    they doomed us all

  3. Uw Moeder
    August 23rd, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    If you speak Dutch: here’s a short documentary about the Robocat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUwd-cZhrKo&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eapp elogen%2Ebe%2F2007%2F07%2F19%2Froboliefde%2Ddocumentaire%2Dover%2Drobo dieren%2F

  4. L
    August 23rd, 2007 at 1:22 pm

    Doesn’t sound like a very good idea to me. People (and other animals) sometimes do dumb things as a result of fear. Why does anyone think that giving robots emotions would be a GOOD thing?

  5. Cayenne
    August 23rd, 2007 at 1:44 pm

    This could go one of two disastrous ways: we could end up with Skynet (we all know ‘going with your gut’ is a good way to end up in senseless wars)… Or we could go the Sirius Cybernetics Corp. route and end up with Marvin the Paranoid Android, and robots that take more personal days than their human counterparts.

  6. v.dog
    August 23rd, 2007 at 3:45 pm

    I wouldn’t want a robot that’s likely to get pissed off and become irrational, they’ve already decided we taste like bacon (click the link). o_O


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