FEELIX GROWING

• FP6 Cognition Unit
• Cognitive Systems, Interaction and Robotics in FP7
• HUMAINE, the European Network of Excellence on Emotions and Human-Machine Interaction
• euCognition , The European Network for the Advancement of Artificial Cognitive Systems
• EURON, The European Robotics Research Network
• RobotCub, Embodied Cognition Research
• COGNIRON, The Cognitive Robot Companion
• ICEA, Integrating Cognition, Emotion, and Autonomy
• IP Companions aims to change the way we think about the relationships of people to computers and the Internet by developing a virtual conversational 'Companion'

FP7 Call 1 Projects

• ALEAR, Artificial Language Evolution on Autonomous Robots
• ChiRoPing, Developing Versatile and Robust Perception using Sonar Systems that integrate Active Sensing, Morphology and Behaviour
• CLASSiC, Computational Learning in Adaptive Systems for Spoken Conversation
• CoFRIEND, Cognitive and Flexible learning system operating Robust Interpretation of Extended real sceNes by multi-sensors Datafusion

The School of Computer Science of the University of Hertfordshire is home to the Adaptive Systems Research Group, comprising ten permanent academic staff and over 30 doctoral students and post-docs, who carry research in various aspects of Emotion modeling, Developmental Robotics, Socially Intelligent Agents, Human-Robot and Human-Computer Interaction, Embodied Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Sensor Evolution and Artificial Life. Lola Cañamero leads research on emotion modeling and its intersections with other areas such as developmental and embodied robotics, and human-robot / human-computer interaction, focusing particularly on the following main topics: architectures based on emotions and motivations for decision-making (behavior selection) in autonomous agents and robots; emotion-based learning of affordances in autonomous robots; the evolution of emotional expression and behavior in artificial agents; the role of affect in imitation; the development of affective bonds in robots and in artificial social groups; and expressive robotic heads for the study of emotion development and social interactions.

UH Team: Lola Cañamero (project coordinator), Peter-Paul Pichler (project manager), Sven Magg (project research administrator), Antoine Hiolle, John Murray, Rene te Boekhorst, Daniel Polani.

Project summary If robots are to be truly integrated in humans’ everyday environment in order to provide services such as company, caregiving, entertainment, patient monitoring, aids in therapy, etc., they cannot be simply designed and taken off the shelf to be directly embedded into a real-life setting. Adaptation to incompletely known and changing environments and personalization to their human users and partners are necessary features to achieve successful long-term integration. This integration would require that, like children (but on a shorter time-scale), robots develop embedded in the social environment in which they will fulfil their roles. The overall goal of this project is the interdisciplinary investigation of socially situated development from an integrated or global perspective, as a key paradigm towards achieving robots that interact with humans in their everyday environments in a rich, flexible, autonomous, and user-centred way.