Emotobot is one of the latest projects to be undertaken at ICM prototype by myself Steven Gartland and anyone else who fancies an input.
The project started through my old love of Psychology and my new love of building things. I have long been aware of models of human behaviour and motivations that have helped develop some impressive therapies (for when things go a bit wrong). These models have been fine tuned and built on over the past 50 years or so, making it very hard to gain an understanding of how they all interact to create the human condition. Subsequently, it is the aim of this project to develop a system for a robot, based on the many psychological models, that exhibits behaviours motivated by their interplay. Once the system is up and running, we can observe changes within the system as an addition to the stimulus-response approach of Behavioural Psychologists.
The first steps:
* Choose a platform
* Learn how to program
* Replicate Anxiety
Simple!
Choose a platform
After much research and questioning of peers (thanks Matt) I decided to go for the Nanode RFX for the platform. It is a prototyping board much like the Arduino but with a few more bells and whistles on it, i.e. an RF unit, Ethernet controller, real time clock and an S.D. card slot. This will, I hope, make it more than capable for what I need in the short term and the ability to expand as it grows with all the extras.
Learn How to Program
Apart from a little dabbling with BBC Basic as a child (on the Spectrum 48k), I have never had any experience with programming and I must admit it was a little daunting. Luckily, I had many experts on hand to advise.
I began coding, using the Arduino IDE and, after a few set up issues, it was nothing like as hard as I thought it would be (thank you cut and paste).
Replicate Anxiety (The hard bit)
Anxiety in humans is viewed by many Psychologists as a dynamic affair. Levels of anxiety change from moment to moment and are influenced by perceived changes in our environment and our thought processes. Our 'resting' anxiety levels (levels of anxiety that is our personal norm), develops over our lifetime caused by our experiences, both internal and external.
Anxiety effects many aspects of the human psyche as well as physical processes. For example if you were to encounter a lion in your front room you would feel worried - shaking, sweating and butterflies in the tummy. All of which are physical functions of anxiety caused by Adrenalin being released into the blood system to prepare for 'fight or flight'.
As anxiety is one of the oldest (evolutionary speaking) of human processes, it is helpful to regard it as a core process. Therefore, it make sense to begin with this process and then build other (newer) processes on top.
A detailed account of my programming a simulation of anxiety will be included in my next post.
The project started through my old love of Psychology and my new love of building things. I have long been aware of models of human behaviour and motivations that have helped develop some impressive therapies (for when things go a bit wrong). These models have been fine tuned and built on over the past 50 years or so, making it very hard to gain an understanding of how they all interact to create the human condition. Subsequently, it is the aim of this project to develop a system for a robot, based on the many psychological models, that exhibits behaviours motivated by their interplay. Once the system is up and running, we can observe changes within the system as an addition to the stimulus-response approach of Behavioural Psychologists.
The first steps:
* Choose a platform
* Learn how to program
* Replicate Anxiety
Simple!
Choose a platform
After much research and questioning of peers (thanks Matt) I decided to go for the Nanode RFX for the platform. It is a prototyping board much like the Arduino but with a few more bells and whistles on it, i.e. an RF unit, Ethernet controller, real time clock and an S.D. card slot. This will, I hope, make it more than capable for what I need in the short term and the ability to expand as it grows with all the extras.
Learn How to Program
Apart from a little dabbling with BBC Basic as a child (on the Spectrum 48k), I have never had any experience with programming and I must admit it was a little daunting. Luckily, I had many experts on hand to advise.
I began coding, using the Arduino IDE and, after a few set up issues, it was nothing like as hard as I thought it would be (thank you cut and paste).
Replicate Anxiety (The hard bit)
Anxiety in humans is viewed by many Psychologists as a dynamic affair. Levels of anxiety change from moment to moment and are influenced by perceived changes in our environment and our thought processes. Our 'resting' anxiety levels (levels of anxiety that is our personal norm), develops over our lifetime caused by our experiences, both internal and external.
Anxiety effects many aspects of the human psyche as well as physical processes. For example if you were to encounter a lion in your front room you would feel worried - shaking, sweating and butterflies in the tummy. All of which are physical functions of anxiety caused by Adrenalin being released into the blood system to prepare for 'fight or flight'.
As anxiety is one of the oldest (evolutionary speaking) of human processes, it is helpful to regard it as a core process. Therefore, it make sense to begin with this process and then build other (newer) processes on top.
A detailed account of my programming a simulation of anxiety will be included in my next post.
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