So-called "neurotic" robots were presented by researchers at this past week's IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Hong Kong, showing renewed progress in making robots a little more human.
"We’re trying to make the robot brain more like human brain," Jeff Krichmar, professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine,
told Discovery News. "The brain has incredibly flexibility and adaptability. If you look at any artificial system, it’s far more brittle than biology."
Krichmar and and other engineers say that robots are good at complex computation — like playing chess — and looking up information quickly — like IBM's Jeopardy-winning Watson computer — as well as putting the two together — like telling you the best route to take based on traffic conditions.
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Robots are not so great, however, at basic human stuff like walking, confabulating, or recognizing objects around them.
According to The Raw Story, humans and other animals are driven in part by neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, and researchers are now trying to "mimick[] the actions of the brain chemicals by translating them into equations in the robots' cognitive software."
"Were mimicking the action of the chemicals with equations," said Krichmar. "We are doing mathematical models of brain or cognitive system, then putting that in software and it becomes the controller for the robot."
By giving robots artificial, human-like response mechanisms like fear or self-interestedness, researchers hope robots could become more effective and autonomous. A search-and-rescue robot, for instance, might be able to make smarter decisions about weather conditions before setting out on a mission when assisted by human-like decision making tools.
Carl’s Junior, one robot developed by researchers that looks like a colorful turtle, has already made progress in treating children on the autism spectrum who are sometimes more comfortable interacting with non-human objects than human therapists.
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