Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
also define the personality of the robot. These traits may depend on the
state of the robot at a given time, for example whether it is happy or sad,
grateful or angry, and whether it likes or dislikes an object or the person
or robot with whom it is interacting. Using this trait model it is possible
to create robots with different personality types: nasty, friendly, shy, lazy,
bad-tempered and selective (friendly with some people/robots and nasty
with others).
In order to simulate personality in robots it is first necessary to de-
velop rules that specify how the robot will be most likely to behave, given
its particular personality. These rules will be followed by the robot when
it decides on an action and they will be exhibited as personality traits that
can be identified by those who interact with and those who observe the
robot. Its personality traits will also have a significant influence on the
moods of a robot and on its interpersonal relationships with other robots
and with humans.
In the Affective Reasoner model described earlier in this chapter, El-
liott and Ortony represented personality in two parts. The first part,
which they call the interpretive personality , is used for determining whether
something the robot experiences is relevant to its own goals, standards or
preferences, and if so, the robot's ability to reason allows it to relate that
experience to its emotional state. To understand how the interpretive
personality works, consider two spectators at a soccer game, one sup-
porting Manchester United and the other being a Chelsea supporter. If
Manchester United win the match then their supporter will be happy
while the Chelsea supporter will be sad—an example of two people feel-
ing opposing emotions as a result of the same event, and feeling differ-
ently because of their different preferences.
The other part of the Elliott/Ortony representation is called the mani-
festative personality component and is used for determining how the robot
will act or feel in response to its emotional state. In order to understand
the manifestative personality component, let us suppose that a robot is
feeling proud about having done something its owner had requested. If
the robot's personality is the quiet type it may simply manifest its emo-
tions through a quiet response, for example a feeling of general well be-
ing. If the robot is talkative it may express its pride by saying something
appropriate, for example telling its owner or some other person or robot
that it is proud at having accomplished the task. If the robot is manipu-
lative it may manifest its pride by attempting to change the emotions of
others, for example by calling attention to its praiseworthy act in order to
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