Papers
5
Total Citations
237
H-Index
5
About
Giancarlo Petrosino is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of evolutionary robotics, cognitive science, and artificial life, best known for his groundbreaking work on emotion, motivation, and decision-making in artificial agents. His most influential paper, "Robots that *have* emotions" (93 citations), revolutionized the field by demonstrating how simulated emotions can serve as a motivational decision mechanism, enabling robots to prioritize competing drives—much like animals do. Petrosino further expanded this line of inquiry with "Male and female robots" (50 citations), which introduced sexual reproduction into evolving robot populations, exploring how gender-based roles shape behavioral strategies. His work on "Selective attention enables action selection" (49 citations) provided key evidence that attentional mechanisms are critical for resolving action conflicts in autonomous agents, a finding with implications for both robotics and neuroscience. In "Nonhuman gamblers" (38 citations), Petrosino bridged comparative psychology and robotics by surveying risk-taking behaviors across rodents, primates, and robots, offering novel insights into pathological gambling. His research consistently challenges traditional boundaries, using evolutionary robotics as a tool to investigate fundamental cognitive processes, from intertemporal choice to motivational conflict, making him a leading voice in understanding how embodied, evolved minds—both biological and artificial—make decisions.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Robots that <i>have</i> emotions93 citations · 2010
- 2Male and female robots50 citations · 2011
- 3
- 4Nonhuman gamblers: lessons from rodents, primates, and robots38 citations · 2014
- 5