Embodying intelligence in autonomous and robotic systems with the use of cognitive psychology and motivation theories

Abstract

The article discusses, on a certain level of abstraction and generalization, a coherent anthropological approach to the issue of controlling autonomous robots or agents. A contemporary idea can be based on appropriate modeling of the human mind using the available psychological knowledge. One of the main reasons for developing such projects is the lack of available and effective top-down approaches resulting from the known research on autonomous robotics. On the other hand, there is no system that models human psychology sufficiently well for the purpose of constructing autonomous systems. Nevertheless, to combat this lack, several ideas have been proposed for embodying human intelligence. We review recent progress in our understanding of the mechanisms of cognitive computations underlying decision-making and discuss some of the pertinent challenges identified and implemented in several systemic solutions founded on cognitive ideas (like LIDA, CLARION, SOAR, MANIC, DUAL, OpenCog). In particular, we highlight the idea of an Intelligent System of Decision-making (ISD) based on the achievements of cognitive psychology (using the aspect of ‘information path’), motivation theory (where the needs and emotions serve as the main drives, or motivations, in the mechanism of governing autonomous systems), and several other detailed theories, which concern memory, categorization, perception, and decision-making. In the ISD system, in particular, an xEmotion subsystem covers the psychological theories on emotions, including the appraisal, evolutionary and somatic theories.