Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Emotions in autonomous agents: comparative analysis of mechanisms and functions

  • Published:
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Emotion mechanisms are often used in artificial agents as a method of improving action selection. Comparisons between agents are difficult due to a lack of unity between the theories of emotion, tasks of agents and types of action selection utilised. A set of architectural qualities is proposed as a basis for making comparisons between agents. An analysis of existing agent architectures that include an emotion mechanism can help to triangulate design possibilities within the space outlined by these qualities. With this in mind, twelve autonomous agents incorporating an emotion mechanism into action selection are selected for analysis. Each agent is dissected using these architectural qualities (the agent architecture, the action selection mechanism, the emotion mechanism and emotion state representation, along with the emotion model it is based on). This helps to place the agents within an architectural space, highlights contrasting methods of implementing similar theoretical components, and suggests which architectural aspects are important to performance of tasks. An initial framework is introduced, consisting of a series of recommendations for designing emotion mechanisms within artificial agents, based on correlations between emotion roles performed and the aspects of emotion mechanisms used to perform those roles. The conclusion discusses how problems with this type of research can be resolved and to what extent development of a framework can aid future research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Andronache V., Scheutz M. (2002) Contention scheduling: A viable action selection mechanism for robotics?. In: Conlon S. (eds) Proceedings of the thirteenth annual midwest artificial intelligence and cognitive science conference (MAICS-02). AAAI Press, Chicago, Illinois, pp 122–129

    Google Scholar 

  2. Andronache V., Scheutz M. (2003) Apoc—a framework for complex agents. In: Lipson H., Antonsson E., Koza J. (eds) Proceedings of the AAAI spring symposium: Computational synthesis: From basic building blocks to high level functionality. AAAI Press, MenloPark, CA

    Google Scholar 

  3. Arbib M., Fellous J. M. (2004) Emotions: From brain to robot. TRENDS in Cognitive Science 8(12): 554–561

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Brezeal C. (1998) A motivation system for regulating human-robot interaction. In: Mostow J., Rich C. (eds) Proceedings of the fifteenth national conference on artificial intelligence. AAAI Press, MenloPark, CA, pp 54–61

    Google Scholar 

  5. Brezeal C. (2004) Function meets style: Insights from emotion theory applied to hri. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Part C: Applications and Reviews 34(2): 187–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Brezeal C., Brooks R. (2005) Robot emotion: A functional perspective. In: Fellous J. M., Arbib M. (eds) Who needs emotions? The brain meets the robot. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 271–310

    Google Scholar 

  7. Brom, C., & Bryson, J. (2006). Action selection for intelligent systems. EuCognition white paper. Available from http://www.eucognition.org/euCognition_2006-2008/asm-whitepaper-final-060804.pdf. Accessed 31 January 2011.

  8. Bryson J. (2000) Cross-paradigm analysis of autonomous agent architecture. Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 12(2): 165–190

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Bryson J. (2007) Mechanisms of action selection: Introduction to the special issue. Adaptive Behaviour 15(1): 5–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Cañamero D. (1998) Issues in the design of emotional agents. In: Cañamero D. (eds) AAAI fall symposium: emotional and intelligent: the tangled knot of cognition (FS-98-03). AAAI Press, Menlo Park, CA, pp 49–54

    Google Scholar 

  11. Chown E. (1993) The adaptive power of affect: Learning in the sesame architecture. In: Meyer J.A., Roitblat H.L., Wilson S. (eds) From animals to animats 2: Proceedings of the second international conference on simulation adaptive behaviour. MIT Press, MA

    Google Scholar 

  12. Crabbe F. L. (2007) Compromise strategies for action selection. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 362(1485): 1559–1571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Damasio A. R. (1994) Descartes’ error: emotion, reason and the human brain. Grosset/Putnam, New York

    Google Scholar 

  14. Digman J. (1990) Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model. Annual Review of Psychology 41: 417–440

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Ekman P. (1984) Expression and the nature of emotion. In: Scherer K., Ekman P. (eds) Approaches to emotion. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 319–344

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ekman P. (1992) An argument for basic emotions. Cognition and Emotion 6: 169–200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Fellous J.M. (2004) From human emotions to robot emotions. In: Hudlicka E., Cañamero L. (eds) AAAI spring 2004 symposium: architectures for modelling emotion: cross-disciplinary foundations. AAAI Press, Menlo Park, CA

    Google Scholar 

  18. Fox E. (2008) Emotion science. Palgrave Macmillan, Ludwig

    Google Scholar 

  19. Frijda N. (1994) Emotions are functional, most of the time. In: Ekman P., Davidson R. (eds) The nature of emotion: fundamental questions. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 112–122

    Google Scholar 

  20. Frijda N. H., Zeelenberg M. (2001) Appraisal: What is the dependent?. In: Scherer K. R., Bänziger T., Roesch E. (eds) Appraisal processes in emotion: theory, methods, research. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 141–155

    Google Scholar 

  21. Gadanho, S., & Hallam, J. (1998a). Emotion-triggered learning for autonomous robots. In: D. Cañamero, C. Numaoka, & P. Petta (Eds.), Submitted to SAB’98 workshop 5: Grounding emotions in adaptive systems. DAI Research Paper 916, Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.

  22. Gadanho S.C., Hallam J. (1998) Exploring the role of emotions in autonomous robot learning. In: Cañamero D. (eds) AAAI fall symposium: emotional and intelligent: The tangled knot of cognition (FS-98-03). Falmouth, MA, pp 84–89

    Google Scholar 

  23. Gratch J., Marsella S. (2004) A domain independent framework for modeling emotion. Journal of Cognitive Systems Research 5(4): 296–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Hollinger, G. A., Georgiev, Y., Manfredi, A., Maxwell, B. A., Pezzementi, Z. A., & Mitchell, B. (2006). Design of a social mobile robot using emotion-based decision mechanisms. In: IEEE (Ed.), 2006 IEEE/RSJ conference on intelligent robots and systems (pp. 3093–3098). Beijing: IEEE.

  25. Hudlicka, E. (2008). What are we modeling when we model emotion? In: I. Horswill, E. Hudlicka, C. Lisetti, & J. Velasquez (Eds.), Proceedings of the AAAI spring symposium: emotion, personality, and social behvior. Technicl Report SS-08-04.

  26. Izard C. (1971) The face of emotion. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York

    Google Scholar 

  27. Jones, R., Henniger, A., & Chown, E. (2002). Interfacing emotional behaviour moderators with intelligent synthetic forces. In: Proceedings of eleventh computer generated forces and behaviour representation conference, Orlando, FL.

  28. Kopp C., Neufeld S. (2003) Emotional development during infancy. In: Davidson R., Scherer K., Hill Goldsmith H. (eds) Handbook of affective sciences. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 347–374

    Google Scholar 

  29. Larson R. J., Diener E. (1992) Promises and problems with the circumplex model of affect. Review of Personality and Social Psychology 13: 25–59

    Google Scholar 

  30. Lee, W. P., Kuo, J. W., & Lai, P. C. (2008). Building adaptive emotion-based pet robots. In: Proceedings of the world congress on engineering (WCE 2008), London, UK.

  31. Levenson R. (1994) Human emotion: a functional view. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 123–126

    Google Scholar 

  32. Mahboub, K. (2006). Simulation of emotional processes in decision making. In: Workshop on complex systems and self-organisation modelling (CoSSoM’06), a workshop for 20th annual European simulation and modelling conference (ESM’2006), Hawai, USA.

  33. Mahboub K., Jay V. (2009) Simulation of emotional processes in decision making. In: Bertelle C., Duchamp G. H. E., Kadri-Dahmani H. (eds) Complex systems and self-organization modelling. Springer, NY, pp 165–175

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  34. Malfaz M., Salichs M.A. (2004) A new architecture for autonomous robots based on emotions. In: Santos-Victor J., Ribeiro M. (eds) Fifth IFAC symposium on intelligent autonomous vehicles (IAV 2004). Lisboa, Portugal

    Google Scholar 

  35. Marsella S., Gratch J., Petta P. (2010) Computational models of emotion. In: Scherer K. R., Bänziger T., Roesch E. (eds) A blueprint for affective computing: a sourcebook and manual. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  36. Mehrabian A. (1980) Basic dimensions for a general psychological theory. OG&H Publishers, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  37. Mochida, T., Ishiguro, A., Aoki, T., & Uchikawa, Y. (1995). Behaviour arbitration for autonomous mobile robots using emotion mechanisms. In: Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems (IROS’95), Pittsburgh, PA.

  38. Murphy R. R., Lisetti C. L., Tardif R., Irish L., Gage A. (2002) Emotion-based control of cooperating heterogenous mobile robots. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 18(5): 744–757

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Ortony A., Clore G., Collins A. (1988) The cognitive structure of emotions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  40. Ortony A., Norman D.A., Revelle W. (2005) Affect and proto-affect in effective functioning. In: Fellous J., Arbib M. (eds) Who needs emotions? the brain meets the robot. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 173–202

    Google Scholar 

  41. Ortony A., Turner T. K. (1990) What’s basic about basic emotions?.   Psychological Review 97(3): 315–331

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Nozawa A., Sato S., Ide H. (2005) Characteristics of behaviour of robots with emotion model. Electrical Engineering in Japan 153(4): 1390–1395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Park, J. C., Kim, H. R., Kim, Y. M., & Kwon, D. S. (2009). Robot’s individual emotion generation model and action coloring according to the robot’s personality. In: The 18th IEEE international symposium on robot and human interactive communication, Viareggio, Italy.

  44. Pirjanian, P. (1999). Behaviour coordination mechanisms—state-of-the-art. Tech. Rep. IRIS-99-375. Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, School of Engineering, University of Southern California.

  45. Plutchik R. (1980) A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In: Plutchik R., Kellerman H. (eds) Theories of emotion: emotion: theory, research and experience. Academic Press, New York, pp 3–31

    Google Scholar 

  46. Posner J., Russell J., Peterson B. (2005) The circumplex model of affect: An integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology 17: 715–734

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Roseman, I. J. (1996). Why these appraisals? anchoring appraisal models to research on emotional behaviour and related response systems. In: N. Frijda (Ed.), Proceedings on the ninth international conference of the international society for research on emotions. Storrs, CT: International Society for Research on Emotions.

  48. Roseman I. J., Smith C. A. (2001) Appraisal theory: Overview, assumptions, varieties, controversies. In: Scherer K. R., Bänziger T., Roesch E. (eds) Appraisal processes in emotion: theory, methods, research. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 3–19

    Google Scholar 

  49. Rosenbloom P., Laird J., Newell A. (1993) The soar papers: research on integrated intelligence. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Google Scholar 

  50. Scherer K. R. (1984) Emotion as a multicomponent process: A model and some crosscultural data. In: Shaver P. (eds) Review of personality and social psychology: emotions, relationships, and health. Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, pp 37–63

    Google Scholar 

  51. Scherer K. R. (2001) The nature and study of appraisal: A review of the issues. In: Scherer K. R. (eds) Appraisal processes in emotion: theory, methods, research. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 369–391

    Google Scholar 

  52. Scheutz, M. (2004). Useful roles of emotion in artificial agents: A case study from artificial life. In: D. McGuinness & G. Ferguson (Eds.), Proceedings of the national conference on artificial intelligence (pp. 42–48). San Jose, CA: MIT Press.

  53. Schorr A. (2001) Appraisal: The evolution of an idea. In: Scherer K. R. (eds) Appraisal processes in emotion: theory, methods, research. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 20–34

    Google Scholar 

  54. Sloman, A. (2004). What are theories of emotion about? In: AAAI spring 2004 symposium: Architectures for modelling emotion: cross-disciplinary foundations. Stanford: Stanford University.

  55. Sloman A., Chrisley R., Scheutz M. (2005) The architectural basis of affective states and processes. In: Fellous J., MA A. (eds) Who needs emotions? the brain meets the robot. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  56. Sloman A., Logan B. (1998) Architectures and tools for human-like agents. In: Ritter F., Young R. (eds) Proceedings of the 2nd European conference on cognitive modelling. Nottingham, UK, pp 58–65

    Google Scholar 

  57. Takuma T. (1981) Psychology of likes and dislikes. Kodansha, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  58. Tanguy E., Willis P.J., Bryson J.J. (2007) Emotions as durative dynamic state for action selection. In: Veloso M. (eds) 20th joint conference on artificial intelligence (IJCAI). Hyderabad, India

    Google Scholar 

  59. Tomkins S. (1984) Affect theory. In: K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.) Approaches to Emotion. Erlbaum, London, pp 163–196

    Google Scholar 

  60. Tsankova, D. (2002) Emotionally influenced coordination of behaviours for autonomous mobile robots. In: 2002 first international IEEE symposium “intelligent systems” (pp 92–97). Varna, Bulgaria.

  61. Tsankova D. (2009) Emotional intervention on an action selection mechanism based on artificial immune networks for navigation of autonomous agents. Adaptive Behaviour 17(2): 135–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Tyrrell, T. (1993). Computational mechanism for action selection. PhD thesis. University of Edinburgh, UK.

  63. Watson D., Clark L. A. (1992) On traits and temperament: General and specific factors of emotional experience and their relation to the five factor model. Journal of Personality 60: 441–475

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Watson D., Wiese D., Vaidya J., Tellegen A. (1999) The two general activation systems of affect: Structural findings, evolutionary considerations, and psychobiological evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 76: 820–838

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Weiner B., Graham S. (1984) An attributional approach to emotional development. In: Izard C., Kagan R., Zajonc J. (eds) Emotions, cognition, and behaviour. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 167–191

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Plymouth, PL4 8AA, Plymouth, UK

    Timothy Rumbell & Thomas Wennekers

  2. School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    John Barnden

  3. School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    Susan Denham

Authors
  1. Timothy Rumbell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John Barnden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Susan Denham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Thomas Wennekers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Wennekers.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rumbell, T., Barnden, J., Denham, S. et al. Emotions in autonomous agents: comparative analysis of mechanisms and functions. Auton Agent Multi-Agent Syst 25, 1–45 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-011-9166-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-011-9166-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation