Researchers have developed an advanced robot that develops empathy for partner robot
Humans have long been thinking about a future where robots can function by themselves, and at the worst scenario, predict humans and other robots actions. This has been the storyline of almost all sci-fi movies that portrayed robots to be initially at human’s aid and then when they start having feelings for themselves, robots turn evil and ambitious. Even though the path is very long to reach such an advanced future, researchers and scientists came clean about developing a robot that empathizes for other robots.
Humans are emotional creatures. We strongly thrive on empathy. Even though the fact about humans taking logical decisions prevails, our emotions govern a large part of our intelligence. In a study conducted by Aron K. Barbey in 2012, neurologists confirmed that emotional intelligence share many neural systems for integrating cognitive, social and affective processes. Empathy is one of the major driving factors of emotional changes. Empathy generally refers to the ability to understand and relate to other person’s feelings or experience and react to it. The question of whether machines, especially, robots empathizing takes us back to the previous century when the emotional conduct was deeply analyzed by scientists. Jean Piaget, a Swiss Psychologist and epidemiologist known for his contributions to understand the cognitive development of children. He mentioned that the thought-processes of children are mostly egocentric up until the age of four when their executive functioning starts to improve and theory of minds emerge. However, the world is eager to see what robot empathy can bring.
The concept of robot companions establishing a healthy relationship with humans is still on the bucket list unstriked. Today, robots are more than just a machine that follows the routine mechanism. Robots are climbing terrains, safeguarding humans at rough environments by replacing them in tough jobs, carrying out surgeries, educating students, etc. Unfortunately, even the most intelligent and advanced robots have remained inept at social communication. To break the ice, researchers at the Columbia Engineering have published a report in Nature Scientific Report that unravels how robots have learned to predict its partner robot’s future actions based on just a few video frames.
Robot displays empathy towards other robots
The study conducted at Columbia Engineering’s Creative Machines Lab reflects on the ability of robots to empathize for fellow robots. The research led by Professor Hod Lipson has concluded that sooner or later, robots will become more capable of adopting emotions. The researchers initially built a robot and placed it in a playpen roughly 3×2 feet in size. The robot was programmed to move forward towards a green circle whenever it appears. But a simple distraction was also added to the study. Sometimes, they placed red cardboard blocking the green circle. It made the robots skip that and go for other green circles. Another robot was made to observe the motion of the first robot for two hours. The observing robot began to anticipate the movement of the first robot. It predicted 98 out of 100 times correctly across varying situations, without being told explicitly about the partner’s visibility handicap. The accuracy of anticipation made a mark that robot empathy is on its way.
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