View - ResearchGate

Designing Sociable Machines 151SensorsLow-LevelFeatureExtractionHigh-Level Perception System“People” “Toys”World & CaregiverAttentionSystemSocial StimulationReleasers ReleasersBehavior SystemMotor SystemMotivationSystemDrivesMotorsOrientHead &EyesMotor SkillsFace Expr&BodyPosturesVocalActsEmotionSystemFigure 18.1. Kismet (left) has 15 degrees of freedom (DoF) in its face, 3 for the eyes, and 3for the neck. It has 4 cameras, one behind each eyeball, one between the eyes, and one in the“nose.” It can express itself through facial expression, body posture, gaze direction, and vocalizations.The robot’s architecture (right) implements perception, attention, behavior arbitration,motivation (drives and emotive responses) and motor acts (expressive and skill oriented).sistencies to learn the significance his actions and expressions have for otherpeople so that he does share the same meanings. This is the sort of scenariothat we are exploring with Kismet. Hence, it is important that humans treatand respond to Kismet in a similar manner, and Kismet has been designed toencourage this.Regulation of Interactions. As with young infants, Kismet must be wellversedin regulating its interactions with the caregiver to avoid becoming overwhelmedor under-stimulated. Inspired by developmental psychology, Kismethas several mechanisms for accomplishing this, each for different kinds of interactions.They all serve to slow the human down to an interaction rate thatis within the comfortable limits of Kismet’s perceptual, mechanical, and behaviorallimitations. Further, Kismet provides readable cues as to what theappropriate level of interaction is. The robot exhibits interest in its surroundingsand in the humans that engage it, and behaves in a way to bring itselfcloser to desirable aspects and to shield itself from undesirable aspects. Bydoing so, Kismet behaves to promote an environment for which its capabilitiesare well-matched—ideally, an environment where it is slightly challenged butlargely competent—in order to foster its social development.We have found two distinct regulatory systems to be effective in helpingKismet to maintain itself in a state of “well-being.” These are the emotive responsesand the homeostatic regulatory mechanisms. The drive processes establishthe desired stimulus and motivate the robot to seek it out and to engageit. The emotions are another set of mechanisms (see Table 18.1), with greaterdirect control over behavior and expression, that serve to bring the robot closerto desirable situations (“joy,” “interest,” even “sorrow”), and cause the robot towithdraw from or remove undesirable situations (“fear,” “anger,” or “disgust”).