Page 169 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

152 Socially Intelligent Agents

Which emotional response becomes active depends largely on the perceptual
releasers, but also on the internal state of the robot. The behavioral strategy
may involve a social cue to the caregiver (through facial expression and body
posture) or a motor skill (such as the escape response). We have found that
people readily read and respond to these expressive cues. The robot’s use of
facial displays to define a personal space is a good example of how social cues,
that are a product of emotive responses, can be used to regulate the proximity
of the human to the robot to benefit the robot’s visual processing [3].

Table 18.1. Summary of the antecedents and behavioral responses that comprise Kismet’s
emotive responses. The antecedents refer to the eliciting perceptual conditions for each emotion
process. The behavior column denotes the observable response that becomes active with the
“emotion.” For some, this is simply a facial expression. For others, it is a behavior such as
escape. The column to the right describes the function each emotive response serves Kismet.

Antecedent Conditions Emotion Behavior Function
Delay, difficulty anger, complain show displeasure to
in achieving goal frustration caregiver to modify
of adaptive behavior his/her behavior
Presence of an disgust withdraw signal rejection
undesired stimulus of presented stimulus
to caregiver
Presence of fear, escape Move away from
a threatening, distress a potentially
overwhelming stimulus dangerous stimuli
Prolonged presence calm engage Continued
of a desired interaction with
stimulus a desired stimulus
Success in achieving joy display Reallocate resources
goal of active behavior, pleasure to the next relevant
or praise behavior (or reinforce behavior)
Prolonged absence of sorrow display Evoke sympathy and
a desired stimulus, sorrow attention from caregiver
or prohibition (or discourage behavior)
A sudden, surprise startle alert
close stimulus response
Appearance of a interest orient attend to new,
desired stimulus salient object
Need of an absent boredom seek Explore environment
and desired stimulus for desired stimulus

Establishment of Appropriate Social Expectations. It will be quite a
while before we are able to build autonomous humanoids that rival the social
competence of human adults. For this reason, Kismet is designed to have an
infant-like appearance of a fanciful robotic creature. Note that the human is a