Who Needs Emotions? The Brain Meets the Robot

250 robots
motivational state also affect the sowbug’s behavior. Endo and Arkin (2001)
created a partial robotic incarnation of Tolman’s schematic sowbug. Their
software, called eBug 1 (emulated sowbug), supports both simulations
(Fig. 9.1, top) and robot experiments (Fig. 9.1, bottom) that reflect many of
the details of Tolman’s model.
Tolman’s purposive behaviorism spoke to many of the same issues that
modern behavior-based robotics architectures address (Arkin, 1998): how
to produce intelligent behavior from multiple concurrent and parallel sensorimotor
(behavioral) pathways, how to coordinate their outputs meaningfully,
how to introduce the notion of goal-oriented behavior, how to include
motivation and emotion, and how to permit stages of developmental growth
to influence behavior. Tolman’s approach has yet to be fully exploited for
Figure 9.1. (Top) eBug simulation of schematic sowbug. Initially, the two
colored objects appear to be potential food sources. The robot learns over
time that the light-colored object is an attractive (food) stimulus and the
darker object is an aversive one and changes its behavior as a result. (Bottom)
eBug controlling an actual robot to react to stimuli of the same color. The
robot is attracted to the object on the right.