UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
             COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

                            presents

        "Embodied Affect in Autonomous and Social Robots"
                         Dr Lola Cañamero

    (Adaptive Systems Research Group, School of Computer Science,
                  University of Hertfordshire)

                    1 December (*THURSDAY*)
                           1 - 2 pm


                  Hatfield, College Lane Campus
             *  Seminar Room 2H250 CP Snow Building *

                  Everyone is Welcome to Attend

                  Refreshments will be available


Abstract

Why would we give emotions to robots? Emotions are a key aspect of
human behavior, communication and cognition. Affective computing
and human-oriented approaches to technology design take into account
different aspects of emotions and their expression in order to create
technology that humans feel comfortable with. However, the potential
uses of emotions in robotics go beyond their social and communicative
functions. In this talk, I will discuss, and illustrate with examples
of research and systems developed in my group, how emotion modeling in
autonomous and social robotics can serve two main purposes:

 1) Understanding emotions in biological systems (humans and other
 animals) and their functions. From this perspective, we investigate
 questions such as:
 - What are the key features of human and animal emotions that can be
   shared by autonomous robots in similar environments?
 - How do emotions affect behavior and cognition?
 - How did emotions evolve?
 - How do they develop through life?

2) Building better robots. From this perspective, we try to answer
questions such as:
 - How can emotions help robots to make “good” decisions?
 - How can emotions make robots interact with people better?

I will also discuss how, in my view, answering these questions requires
giving robots internal models of emotions in addition to skills to express
emotions and recognize emotions, and how these models need to be embodied.


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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://cs-colloq.cs.herts.ac.uk