Artificial emotional creature for human-machine interaction

Abstract

This paper introduces the artificial emotional creature project that seeks to explore a different direction that is not so rigidly dependent on such objective measures as accuracy and speed. The goal of this project is to explore a new area in robotics, with an emphasis on human-machine interaction. There is a large body of evidence that shows the importance of the interaction between humans and animals such as pets. We have been building a pet robot, as an implementation of an artificial emotional creature, with the subjective appearance of "behaviors" that are dependent on internal states as well as external stimulation from both the physical environment and human beings. The pet robot has visual, auditory, and tactile sensors. This paper discusses the emergence of intelligence by non-verbal communication between human and robot through physical interaction.