£6.6m to make robots friendlier

Scientists across Europe are collaborating in a £6.6m EU-funded project to give robots personalities in a bid to make them more easy to work with for humans.

The four-year project, called Living with Robots and Interactive Companions (Lirec), is being co-ordinated by Professor Peter McOwan, of Queen Mary’s Department of Computer Science.

He explained: “We’re interested in how people can develop a long-term relationship with artificial creatures, in everyday settings. You may not be able to find a robot that can help you do the dishes anytime soon, but we’re hoping to explore how such friendly future technology could be developed, and start to predict what the intelligent machines of tomorrow might look like, and how we should treat them.”

Lirec will first study how people perceive existing robots, including commercial models like a toy dinosaur called Pleo, and wheeled GlowBots that communicate with each other and people using patterns of coloured light.

Other robots will include ‘iCat, the Affective Chess Player’, whose behaviour and expressions are influenced by the state of play; and ‘peoplebots’ with humanoid features. Lirec will also look for inspiration in the way humans and dogs and interact.

A team from the University of Hertfordshire, which will take part in Lirec, has already developed a robot called Kaspar in the shape of a two-year-old boy. It is capable of facial expressions and can play baby games such as peek-a-boo.

It has also installed a robot 'home help' in a home to examine the long-term relationship with volunteers.

Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, principal investigator at the universoty's School of Computer Science, said the team's work will include looking at ethical and psychological issues.

"Humans, dogs, and other creatures have authentic emotions. Regardless of how [a] robot looks or behaves, we must not confuse machines and people. We want to avoid a situation where a person deeply bonds with a robot, but the robot simply doesn't care.''