@article {2020, title = {A Socially Adaptable Framework for Human-Robot Interaction}, journal = {Frontiers in Robotics and AI}, volume = {7}, year = {2020}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {121}, abstract = {In our everyday lives we regularly engage in complex, personalized, and adaptive interactions with our peers. To recreate the same kind of rich, human-like interactions, a social robot should be aware of our needs and affective states and continuously adapt its behavior to them. Our proposed solution is to have the robot learn how to select the behaviors that would maximize the pleasantness of the interaction for its peers. To make the robot autonomous in its decision making, this process could be guided by an internal motivation system. We wish to investigate how an adaptive robotic framework of this kind would function and personalize to different users. We also wish to explore whether the adaptability and personalization would bring any additional richness to the human-robot interaction (HRI), or whether it would instead bring uncertainty and unpredictability that would not be accepted by the robot{\textquoteright}s human peers. To this end, we designed a socially adaptive framework for the humanoid robot iCub. As a result, the robot perceives and reuses the affective and interactive signals from the person as input for the adaptation based on internal social motivation. We strive to investigate the value of the generated adaptation in our framework in the context of HRI. In particular, we compare how users will experience interaction with an adaptive versus a non-adaptive social robot. To address these questions, we propose a comparative interaction study with iCub whereby users act as the robot{\textquoteright}s caretaker, and iCub{\textquoteright}s social adaptation is guided by an internal comfort level that varies with the stimuli that iCub receives from its caretaker. We investigate and compare how iCub{\textquoteright}s internal dynamics would be perceived by people, both in a condition when iCub does not personalize its behavior to the person, and in a condition where it is instead adaptive. Finally, we establish the potential benefits that an adaptive framework could bring to the context of repeated interactions with a humanoid robot.}, issn = {2296-9144}, doi = {10.3389/frobt.2020.00121}, url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frobt.2020.00121}, author = {Ana Tanevska and Francesco Rea and Giulio Sandini and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Alessandra Sciutti} } @inproceedings {2019, title = {A Cognitive Architecture for Socially Adaptable Robots}, booktitle = {Proc. 2019 Joint IEEE 9th International Conference on Development and Learning and Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL-EpiRob)}, year = {2019}, note = {Download}, month = {08/2019}, pages = {195{\textendash}200}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Oslo, Norway}, doi = {10.1109/DEVLRN.2019.8850688}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8850688}, author = {Ana Tanevska and Francesco Rea and Giulio Sandini and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Alessandra Sciutti} } @inproceedings {2019, title = {Eager to Learn vs. Quick to Complain? How a socially adaptive robot architecture performs with different robot personalities}, booktitle = {Proc. 2019 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (IEEE SMC 2019)}, year = {2019}, note = {Download}, month = {10/2019}, pages = {365{\textendash}371}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Bari, Italy}, abstract = {A social robot that is aware of our needs and continuously adapts its behaviour to them has the potential of creating a complex, personalized, human-like interaction of the kind we are used to have with our peers in our everyday lives. We are interested in exploring how would an adaptive architecture function and personalize to different users when given different initial values of its variables, i.e. when implementing the same adaptive framework with different robot personalities. Would an architecture that learns very quickly outperform a slower but steadier learning profile? To further explore this, we propose a cognitive architecture for the humanoid robot iCub supporting adaptability and we attempt to validate its functionality and test different robot profiles.}, doi = {10.1109/SMC.2019.8913903}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8913903}, author = {Ana Tanevska and Francesco Rea and Giulio Sandini and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Alessandra Sciutti} } @article {2016, title = {Towards Long-Term Social Child-Robot Interaction: Using Multi-Activity Switching to Engage Young Users}, journal = {Journal of Human-Robot Interaction}, volume = {5}, year = {2016}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {32{\textendash}67}, abstract = {Social robots have the potential to provide support in a number of practical domains, such as learning and behaviour change. This potential is particularly relevant for children, who have proven receptive to interactions with social robots. To reach learning and therapeutic goals, a number of issues need to be investigated, notably the design of an effective child-robot interaction (cHRI) to ensure the child remains engaged in the relationship and that educational goals are met. Typically, current cHRI research experiments focus on a single type of interaction activity (e.g. a game). However, these can suffer from a lack of adaptation to the child, or from an increasingly repetitive nature of the activity and interaction. In this paper, we motivate and propose a practicable solution to this issue: an adaptive robot able to switch between multiple activities within single interactions. We describe a system that embodies this idea, and present a case study in which diabetic children collaboratively learn with the robot about various aspects of managing their condition. We demonstrate the ability of our system to induce a varied interaction and show the potential of this approach both as an educational tool and as a research method for long-term cHRI.}, issn = {2163-0364}, doi = {10.5898/JHRI.5.1.Coninx}, url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5898/JHRI.5.1.Coninx}, author = {Coninx, Alexandre and Paul E. Baxter and Oleari, Elettra and Bellini, Sara and Bierman, Bert and Henkemans, Olivier Blanson and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Cosi, Piero and Valentin Enescu and Espinoza, Raquel Ros and Antoine Hiolle and Remi Humbert and Kiefer, Bernd and Kruijff-Korbayov{\'a}, Ivana and Looije, Rosmarijn and Mosconi, Marco and Mark A. Neerincx and Giulio Paci and Patsis, Georgios and Pozzi, Clara and Sacchitelli, Francesca and Hichem Sahli and Alberto Sanna and Sommavilla, Giacomo and Tesser, Fabio and Yiannis Demiris and Tony Belpaeme} } @inproceedings {3, title = {An Embodied AI Approach to Individual Differences: Supporting Self-Efficacy in Diabetic Children with an Autonomous Robot}, booktitle = {Proc. 7th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR-2015)}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, year = {2015}, note = {Download (or Download authors{\textquoteright} draft)}, pages = {401{\textendash}410}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, organization = {Springer International Publishing}, address = {Paris}, abstract = {In this paper we discuss how a motivationally autonomous robot, designed using the principles of embodied AI, provides a suitable approach to address individual differences of children interacting with a robot, without having to explicitly modify the system. We do this in the context of two pilot studies using Robin, a robot to support self-confidence in diabetic children.}, isbn = {978-3-319-25553-8}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-25554-5_40}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007\%2F978-3-319-25554-5_40}, author = {Lewis, Matthew and Oleari, Elettra and Pozzi, Clara and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Tapus, Adriana and Andr{\'e}, Elisabeth and Martin, Jean-Claude and Ferland, Fran{\c c}ois and Ammi, Mehdi} } @inproceedings {2015, title = {Let{\textquoteright}s Be Friends: Perception of a Social Robotic Companion for children with T1DM}, booktitle = {Proc. New Friends 2015}, year = {2015}, note = {Download full proceedings (PDF)}, month = {10/2015}, pages = {32{\textendash}33}, address = {Almere, The Netherlands}, abstract = {We describe the social characteristics of a robot developed to support children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) in the process of education and care. We evaluated the perception of the robot at a summer camp where diabetic children aged 10-14 experienced the robot in group interactions. Children in the intervention condition additionally interacted with it also individually, in one-to-one sessions featuring several game-like activities. These children perceived the robot significantly more as a friend than those in the control group. They also readily engaged with it in dialogues about their habits related to healthy lifestyle as well as personal experiences concerning diabetes. This indicates that the one-on-one interactions added a special quality to the relationship of the children with the robot.}, url = {https://mheerink.home.xs4all.nl/pdf/ProceedingsNF2015-3.pdf}, author = {Kruijff-Korbayov{\'a}, Ivana and Oleari, Elettra and Pozzi, Clara and Sacchitelli, Francesca and Bagherzadhalimi, Anahita and Bellini, Sara and Kiefer, Bernd and Racioppa, Stefania and Coninx, Alexandre and Paul E. Baxter and Bierman, Bert and Henkemans, Olivier Blanson and Mark A. Neerincx and Rosemarijn Looije and Yiannis Demiris and Espinoza, Raquel Ros and Mosconi, Marco and Cosi, Piero and Remi Humbert and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Hichem Sahli and Joachim de Greeff and James Kennedy and Robin Read and Lewis, Matthew and Antoine Hiolle and Giulio Paci and Sommavilla, Giacomo and Tesser, Fabio and Athanasopoulos, Georgios and Patsis, Georgios and Verhelst, Werner and Alberto Sanna and Tony Belpaeme} } @inproceedings {2015, title = {A Reactive Competitive Emotion Selection System}, booktitle = {Proc. 7th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR-2015)}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, year = {2015}, note = {Download}, pages = {31{\textendash}40}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, organization = {Springer International Publishing}, address = {Paris}, abstract = {We present a reactive emotion selection system designed to be used in a robot that needs to respond autonomously to relevant events. A variety of emotion selection models based on "cognitive appraisal" theories exist, but the complexity of the concepts used by most of these models limits their use in robotics. Robots have physical constrains that condition their understanding of the world and limit their capacity to built the complex concepts needed for such models. The system presented in this paper was conceived to respond to "disturbances" detected in the environment through a stream of images, and use this low-level information to update emotion intensities. They are increased when specific patterns, based on Tomkins{\textquoteright} affect theory, are detected or reduced when it is not. This system could also be used as part of (or as first step in the incremental design of) a more cognitively complex emotional system for autonomous robots.}, keywords = {Emotion production, Emotional models, Human Robot Interaction, Social robotics}, isbn = {978-3-319-25553-8}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-25554-5_4}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007\%2F978-3-319-25554-5_4}, author = {Angel Fernandez, Julian M. and Bonarini, Andrea and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Tapus, Adriana and Andr{\'e}, Elisabeth and Martin, Jean-Claude and Ferland, Fran{\c c}ois and Ammi, Mehdi} } @article {2013, title = {Interpretation of Emotional Body Language Displayed by a Humanoid Robot: A Case Study with Children}, journal = {International Journal of Social Robotics}, volume = {5}, year = {2013}, note = {Download}, pages = {325{\textendash}334}, abstract = {The work reported in this paper focuses on giving humanoid robots the capacity to express emotions with their body. Previous results show that adults are able to interpret different key poses displayed by a humanoid robot and also that changing the head position affects the expressiveness of the key poses in a consistent way. Moving the head down leads to decreased arousal (the level of energy) and valence (positive or negative emotion) whereas moving the head up produces an increase along these dimensions. Hence, changing the head position during an interaction should send intuitive signals. The study reported in this paper tested children{\textquoteright}s ability to recognize the emotional body language displayed by a humanoid robot. The results suggest that body postures and head position can be used to convey emotions during child-robot interaction.}, keywords = {emotion, emotional body language, perception, Social robotics}, issn = {1875-4791}, doi = {10.1007/s12369-013-0193-z}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12369-013-0193-z}, author = {Aryel Beck and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Antoine Hiolle and Luisa Damiano and Cosi, Piero and Tesser, Fabio and Sommavilla, Giacomo} } @inproceedings {2013, title = {SimianWorld {\textendash} A Study of Social Organisation Using an Artificial Life Model}, booktitle = {Advances in Artificial Life, ECAL 2013}, year = {2013}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {633{\textendash}640}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, address = {Taormina, Italy}, abstract = {In studies of social behaviour it is commonly assumed that individual complexity is the origin of intricate social interactions. In primates for example, social complexity is attributed to their intelligence and it is argued by many that the cognitive capacity of primates are especially manifest in the way they regulate their social relationships. Whereas the complex societies of non-human primates are considered to be as a direct result of their cognitive abilities this assumption is not made about social insects. In the absence of certain cognitive abilities their complex societies and structurally sophisticated nests are thought to arise from self-organisation. Since it is unlikely that cognitive capacities are all-or-nothing, usually integrating a range of mechanisms, it is possible that different species use similar cognitive mechanisms resulting in different behavioural outcomes.}, isbn = {9780262317092}, doi = {10.7551/978-0-262-31709-2-ch090}, url = {https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/978-0-262-31709-2-ch090}, author = {Sue Attwood and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Ren{\'e} te Boekhorst}, editor = {Pietro Li{\`o} and Orazio Miglino and Giuseppe Nicosia and Stefano Nolfi and Mario Pavone} } @article {2012, title = {Multimodal Child-Robot Interaction: Building Social Bonds}, journal = {Journal of Human-Robot Interaction}, volume = {1}, year = {2012}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {33{\textendash}53}, abstract = {For robots to interact effectively with human users they must be capable of coordinated, timely behavior in response to social context. The Adaptive Strategies for Sustainable Long-Term Social Interaction (ALIZ-E) project focuses on the design of long-term, adaptive social interaction between robots and child users in real-world settings. In this paper, we report on the iterative approach taken to scientific and technical developments toward this goal: advancing individual technical competencies and integrating them to form an autonomous robotic system for evaluation {\textquotedblleft}in the wild.{\textquotedblright} The first evaluation iterations have shown the potential of this methodology in terms of adaptation of the robot to the interactant and the resulting influences on engagement. This sets the foundation for an ongoing research program that seeks to develop technologies for social robot companions.}, doi = {10.5898/JHRI.1.2.Belpaeme}, url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3109688.3109691}, author = {Tony Belpaeme and Paul E. Baxter and Robin Read and Rachel Wood and Cuay{\'a}huitl, Heriberto and Kiefer, Bernd and Racioppa, Stefania and Kruijff-Korbayov{\'a}, Ivana and Athanasopoulos, Georgios and Valentin Enescu and Rosemarijn Looije and Mark A. Neerincx and Yiannis Demiris and Raquel Ros-Espinoza and Aryel Beck and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Lewis, Matthew and Baroni, Ilaria and Nalin, Marco and Cosi, Piero and Giulio Paci and Tesser, Fabio and Sommavilla, Giacomo and Remi Humbert} } @inproceedings {2011, title = {Children Interpretation of Emotional Body Language Displayed by a Robot}, booktitle = {Proc. 3rd International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2011)}, year = {2011}, note = {Download}, pages = {62{\textendash}70}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Amsterdam, The Netherlands}, abstract = {Previous results show that adults are able to interpret different key poses displayed by the robot and also that changing the head position affects the expressiveness of the key poses in a consistent way. Moving the head down leads to decreased arousal (the level of energy), valence (positive or negative) and stance (approaching or avoiding) whereas moving the head up produces an increase along these dimensions [1]. Hence, changing the head position during an interaction should send intuitive signals which could be used during an interaction. The ALIZ-E target group are children between the age of 8 and 11. Existing results suggest that they would be able to interpret human emotional body language [2, 3]. Based on these results, an experiment was conducted to test whether the results of [1] can be applied to children. If yes body postures and head position could be used to convey emotions during an interaction.}, isbn = {978-3-642-25504-5}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-25504-5_7}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007\%2F978-3-642-25504-5_7}, author = {Aryel Beck and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Luisa Damiano and Sommavilla, Giacomo and Tesser, Fabio and Cosi, Piero} } @inproceedings {2011, title = {Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction with Young Users}, booktitle = {Proc. ACM/IEEE Human-Robot Interaction conference (HRI-2011) (Robots with Children Workshop)}, year = {2011}, note = {Downlaod}, address = {Lausanne, Switzerland}, abstract = {Artificial companion agents have the potential to combine novel means for effective health communication with young patients support and entertainment. However, the theory and practice of long-term child-robot interaction is currently an underdeveloped area of research. This paper introduces an approach that integrates multiple functional aspects necessary to implement temporally extended human-robot interaction in the setting of a paediatric ward. We present our methodology for the implementation of a companion robot which will be used to support young patients in hospital as they learn to manage a lifelong metabolic disorder (diabetes). The robot will interact with patients over an extended period of time. The necessary functional aspects are identified and introduced, and a review of the technical challenges involved is presented.}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228470784_Long-term_human-robot_interaction_with_young_users}, author = {Paul E. Baxter and Tony Belpaeme and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Cosi, Piero and Yiannis Demiris and Valentin Enescu and Antoine Hiolle and Kruijff-Korbayov{\'a}, Ivana and Rosemarijn Looije and Nalin, Marco and Mark A. Neerincx and Hichem Sahli and Giocomo Sommavilla and Tesser, Fabio and Rachel Wood} } @inproceedings {2010, title = {Constructing Emotions: Epistemological Groundings and Applications in Robotics for a Synthetic Approach to Emotions}, booktitle = {International Symposium on AI-Inspired Biology}, year = {2010}, note = {Download (PDF)}, pages = {20{\textendash}28}, publisher = {The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour}, organization = {The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour}, address = {De Montford University, Leicester, UK}, abstract = {Can the sciences of the artificial positively contribute to the scientific exploration of life and cognition? Can they actually improve the scientific knowledge of natural living and cognitive processes, from biological metabolism to reproduction, from conceptual mapping of the environment to logic reasoning, language, or even emotional expression? To these kinds of questions our article aims to answer in the affirmative. Its main object is the scientific emergent methodology often called the {\textquotedblleft}synthetic approach{\textquotedblright}, which promotes the programmatic production of embodied and situated models of living and cognitive systems in order to explore aspects of life and cognition not accessible in natural systems and scenarios. The first part of this article presents and discusses the synthetic approach, and proposes an epistemological framework which promises to warrant genuine transmission of knowledge from the sciences of the artificial to the sciences of the natural. The second part of this article looks at the research applying the synthetic approach to the psychological study of emotional development. It shows how robotics, through the synthetic methodology, can develop a particular perspective on emotions, coherent with current psychological theories of emotional development and fitting well with the recent {\textquotedblleft}cognitive extension{\textquotedblright} approach proposed by cognitive sciences and philosophy of mind.}, isbn = {1902956923}, url = {http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/aiib/Symposium_6/Papers/Damiano.pdf}, author = {Luisa Damiano and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Jackie Chappell and Susannah Thorpe and Nick Hawes and Aaron Sloman} } @inproceedings {2010, title = {Using the Interaction Rhythm as a Natural Reinforcement Signal for Social Robots: A Matter of Belief}, booktitle = {Proc. International Conference on Social Robotics, ICSR 2010}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, volume = {6414}, year = {2010}, pages = {81{\textendash}89}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Singapore}, abstract = {In this paper, we present the results of a pilot study of a human robot interaction experiment where the rhythm of the interaction is used as a reinforcement signal to learn sensorimotor associations. The algorithm uses breaks and variations in the rhythm at which the human is producing actions. The concept is based on the hypothesis that a constant rhythm is an intrinsic property of a positive interaction whereas a break reflects a negative event. Subjects from various backgrounds interacted with a NAO robot where they had to teach the robot to mirror their actions by learning the correct sensorimotor associations. The results show that in order for the rhythm to be a useful reinforcement signal, the subjects have to be convinced that the robot is an agent with which they can act naturally, using their voice and facial expressions as cues to help it understand the correct behaviour to learn. When the subjects do behave naturally, the rhythm and its variations truly reflects how well the interaction is going and helps the robot learn efficiently. These results mean that non-expert users can interact naturally and fruitfully with an autonomous robot if the interaction is believed to be natural, without any technical knowledge of the cognitive capacities of the robot.}, isbn = {978-3-642-17247-2}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-17248-9_9}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Peirre Andry and Arnaud J Blanchard and Philippe Gaussier}, editor = {Shuzhi Sam Ge and Haizhou Li and John-John Cabibihan and Yeow Kee Tan} } @inproceedings {2009, title = {The Influence of Social Interaction on the Perception of Emotional Expression: A Case Study with a Robot Head}, booktitle = {Advances in Robotics: Proc. FIRA RoboWorld Congress 2009}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, volume = {5744}, year = {2009}, month = {08/2009}, pages = {63{\textendash}72}, publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, organization = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, address = {Incheon, Korea}, abstract = {In this paper we focus primarily on the influence that socio-emotional interaction has on the perception of emotional expression by a robot. We also investigate and discuss the importance of emotion expression in socially interactive situations involving human robot interaction (HRI), and show the importance of utilising emotion expression when dealing with interactive robots, that are to learn and develop in socially situated environments. We discuss early expressional development and the function of emotion in communication in humans and how this can improve HRI communications. Finally we provide experimental results showing how emotion-rich interaction via emotion expression can affect the HRI process by providing additional information.}, isbn = {978-3-642-03983-6}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-03983-6_10}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007\%2F978-3-642-03983-6_10}, author = {John C Murray and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Kim A. Bard and Ross, Marina Davila and Thorsteinsson, Kate}, editor = {Kim, Jong-Hwan and Ge, Shuzhi Sam and Vadakkepat, Prahlad and Jesse, Norbert and Al Manum, Abdullah and Puthusserypady K, Sadasivan and R{\"u}ckert, Ulrich and Sitte, Joaquin and Witkowski, Ulf and Nakatsu, Ryohei and Braunl, Thomas and Baltes, Jacky and Anderson, John and Wong, Ching-Chang and Verner, Igor and Ahlgren, David} } @inproceedings {2008, title = {Adaptive Olfactory Encoding in Agents Controlled by Spiking Neural Networks}, booktitle = {From Animals to Animats 10: Proc. 10th International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB 2008)}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS)}, volume = { 5040}, year = {2008}, month = {07/2008}, pages = {148{\textendash}158}, publisher = {Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg}, organization = {Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg}, address = {Osaka, Japan}, abstract = {We created a neural architecture that can use two different types of information encoding strategies depending on the environment. The goal of this research was to create a simulated agent that could react to two different overlapping chemicals having varying concentrations. The neural network controls the agent by encoding its sensory information as temporal coincidences in a low concentration environment, and as firing rates at high concentration. With such an architecture, we could study synchronization of firing in a simple manner and see its effect on the agent{\textquoteright}s behaviour.}, isbn = {978-3-540-69134-1}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-69134-1_15}, url = {http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-69134-1_15}, author = {Oros, Nicolas and Volker Steuber and Davey, Neil and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Roderick G Adams}, editor = {Asada, Minoru and Hallam, John C T and Jean-Arcady Meyer and Tani, Jun} } @inproceedings {2008, title = {Optimal Receptor Response Functions for the Detection of Pheromones by Agents Driven by Spiking Neural Networks}, booktitle = {Proc. 9th European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research, Vol. II}, year = {2008}, month = {03/2008}, pages = {427{\textendash}432}, publisher = {Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies}, organization = {Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies}, address = {Vienna, Austria}, abstract = {The goal of the work presented here is to find a model of a spiking sensory neuron that could cope with small variations in the concentration of simulated chemicals and also the whole range of concentrations. By using a biologically plausible sigmoid function in our model to map chemical concentration to current, we could produce agents able to detect the whole range of concentration of chemicals (pheromones) present in the environment as well as small variations of them. The sensory neurons used in our model are able to encode the stimulus intensity into appropriate firing rates.}, isbn = {978-3-85206-175-7}, url = {http://www.cogsci.uci.edu/~noros/mypapers/OROS_2008_EMCSR.pdf}, author = {Oros, Nicolas and Volker Steuber and Davey, Neil and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Roderick G Adams}, editor = {Trappl, R} } @inproceedings {2003, title = {Analyzing the Performance of "Winner-Take-All" and "Voting-Based" Action Selection Policies within the Two-Resource Problem}, booktitle = {Advances in Artificial Life: 7th European Conference, ECAL 2003}, series = {Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence}, volume = {2801}, year = {2003}, note = {Download}, month = {09/2003}, pages = {733{\textendash}742}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Dortmund, Germany}, abstract = {The problem of action selection for an autonomous creature implies resolving conflicts between competing behavioral alternatives. These conflicts can be resolved either via competition, following a {\textquotedblleft}winner-take-all{\textquotedblright} approach, or via cooperation in a {\textquotedblleft}voting-based{\textquotedblright} approach. In this paper we present two robotic architectures implementing these approaches, and report on experiments we have performed to compare their underlying optimization policies. We have framed this study within the context of the {\textquotedblleft}two-resource problem,{\textquotedblright} as it provides a widely used standard that favors systematic experimentation, analysis, and comparison of results.}, isbn = {978-3-540-20057-4}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-39432-7_79}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007\%2F978-3-540-39432-7_79}, author = {Avila-Garc{\'\i}a, Orlando and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Ren{\'e} te Boekhorst}, editor = {Banzhaf, Wolfgang and Christaller, Thomas and Dittrich, Peter and Kim, Jan T and Ziegler, Jens} } @inbook {2003, title = {Designing emotions for activity selection in autonomous agents}, booktitle = {Emotions in Humans and Artifacts}, year = {2003}, pages = {115{\textendash}148}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, chapter = {4}, abstract = {This chapter advocates a "bottom-up" philosophy for the design of emotional systems for autonomous agents that is guided by functional concerns and considers the particular case of designing emotions as mechanisms for action selection. The concrete realization of these ideas implies that the design process must start with an analysis of the requirements that the features of the environment, the characteristics of the action-selection task, and the agent architecture impose on the emotional system. This is particularly important if we see emotions as mechanisms that aim at modifying or maintaining the relation of the agent with its (external and internal) environment (rather than modifying the environment itself) in order to preserve the agent{\textquoteright}s goals. Emotions can then be selected and designed according to the roles they play with respect to this relation. }, isbn = {9780262201421}, author = {Ca{\~n}amero, Lola D}, editor = {Robert Trappl and Paolo Petta and Sabine Payr} } @inproceedings {2003, title = {Optimization Criteria Underlying "Winner-Take-All" and "Voting-Based" Action Selection Policies}, booktitle = {Towards Intelligent Mobile Robots, TIMR{\textquoteright}03: 4th British Conference on Mobile Robotics}, year = {2003}, address = {University of the West of England, Bristol}, author = {Avila-Garc{\'\i}a, Orlando and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Ren{\'e} te Boekhorst and Davey, Neil}, editor = {U Nehmzow and C Melhuish} } @inproceedings {2002, title = {Comparing a Voting-Based Policy with Winner-Takes-All to Perform Action Selection in Motivational Agents}, booktitle = {Advances in Artificial Intelligence {\textendash} IBERAMIA 2002; Proc. 8th Ibero-American Conference on AI}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, volume = {2527}, year = {2002}, pages = {855{\textendash}864}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Seville, Spain}, abstract = {Embodied autonomous agents are systems that inhabit dynamic, unpredictable environments in which they try to satisfy a set of time-dependent goals or motivations in order to survive. One of the problems that this implies is action selection, the task of resolving conflicts between competing behavioral alternatives. We present an experimental comparison of two action selection mechanisms (ASM), implementing "winner-takes-all" (WTA) and "voting-based" (VB) policies respectively, modeled using a motivational behavior-based approach. This research shows the adequacy of these two ASM with respect to different sources of environmental complexity and the tendency of each of them to show different behavioral phenomena.}, isbn = {978-3-540-00131-7}, doi = {10.1007/3-540-36131-6_87}, author = {Avila-Garc{\'\i}a, Orlando and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Garijo, Francisco J and Riquelme, Jos{\'e} C and Toro, Miguel} } @inproceedings {2002, title = {Meaningful Information, Sensor Evolution, and the Temporal Horizon of Embodied Organisms}, booktitle = {Artificial Life VIII: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Artificial Life}, year = {2002}, pages = {345{\textendash}349}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, address = {Sydney, Australia}, abstract = {We survey and outline how an agent-centered, information-theoretic approach to meaningful information extending classical Shannon information theory by means of utility measures relevant for the goals of particular agents can be applied to sensor evolution for real and constructed organisms. Furthermore, we discuss the relationship of this approach to the programme of freeing artificial life and robotic systems from reactivity, by describing useful types of information with broader temporal horizon, for signaling, communication, affective grounding, two-process learning, individual learning, imitation and social learning, and episodic experiential information (memories, narrative, and culturally transmitted information).}, isbn = {9780262692816}, author = {Nehaniv, Chrystopher L and Daniel Polani and Kerstin Dautenhahn and Ren{\'e} te Boekhorst and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Russell Standish and Mark A Bedau and Hussein A Abbass} }