Autonomous motion selection via consciousness-based architecture

We have attempted to give a robot “consciousness” and “emotion” such as that identified in humans and animals in order to enhance the affinity between humans and robots. A hierarchical structure model for such a robot has been developed to connect the robot's consciousness with the robot's behavior. However, it is difficult to autonomously control the timing and the motion that changes the consciousness and behavior of the robot. Therefore, a motivation model has been developed, and was combined with the hierarchical structure model, in order to induce and autonomously change consciousness and behavior. Then, the action of dopamine in neurotransmitters was incorporated in the motivation model to add activity to the robot in conjunction with the incentive to perform a behavior. In this paper the expression of emotion by a Conscious Behavior Robot (Conbe-I) that incorporated this motivation model, and the emotional behaviors that the humans can feel some emotional; a lovely and a pitiful etc., were studied.