All You Need is Love?

Posted 13 Aug 2003 at 19:39 UTC by steve

When it comes to learning, cognition may not be enough. But neither is emotion. Your robot needs both according to a new research paper (PDF format) by Sandra Clara Gadanho of the Institute of Systems and Robotics in Protugal. The paper suggests that emotion and cognition must interact in learning and decision making. An experiment is described involving a Khepra robot that must navigate a maze to find enegry sources in order to survive. The robot learns faster when it derives an emotion of well-being from making choices that promote survival.