Paranoid androids 'in 10 years'

As a depressed machine roaming through space in the fictional Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Marvin the Paranoid Android popularised the concept of a robot with feelings.

However, the real thing will be available far closer to home in just 10 years, scientists predicted yesterday. They now claim it is essential to give robots their own emotions if they are to be capable of running independently and efficiently enough to take on a variety of domestic tasks.

As well as Marvin, robots with feelings were envisaged by the -science fiction movie I, Robot, in which they delighted in performing tasks such as cleaning, walking the dog and even caring for elderly relatives.

At present, commercially available robots such as automatic vacuum cleaners are little more than drones capable of carrying out only one task. However, speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco yesterday, a panel of robotics experts said robots capable of multiple domestic tasks, that can also provide companionship for their owners, will be available within 10 years. And the scientists claim it is already possible to give robots such "feelings".

A number of groups around the world are now developing robots that have basic emotions in a bid to motivate the machines.

If a robot feels happy after it has cleaned a dirty carpet particularly well, then it will apparently seek out more dirt to do the same. Similarly, if the robot feels guilt or sadness at having failed at a task, it will try harder next time.

advertisement"Emotion plays an important role in guiding attention towards what is important and away from distractions," said Professor Cynthia Breazeal, one of the world's leading roboticists based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It allows the robot to make better decisions, learn more effectively and interact more appropriately."

Essentially human emotions are a series of electrical and chemical signals that are interpreted by our brains to produce a particular feeling. This emotion then drives a series of decisions about what to do next. In the same way Prof Breazeal has programmed her robot to interpret electronic signals as emotions that then spark a physical reaction such as a change in facial expression, voice and even posture.

For example, when shown a toy, the robot will become happy and smile, while when surprised it will show fear and cower. Prof Breazeal says that by creating the equivalent of frustration when a robot is carrying out a difficult task, it will try alternative strategies while boredom will motivate it to find new tasks.

Other scientists have found that by replicating the feeling of hunger, their robots will realise their batteries are getting low and seek to "feed" themselves by recharging.

Computer experts at Glasgow Caledonian University have also been working on giving robots emotions. David Moffat, a computer scientist at the university, has produced robots which experience fear to help them evade other robot "predators".

He said: "Emotion is very important for humans. For example if a human is chased by a bear, they experience fear and they learn from that experience not to get close to bears. Robots need the same thing.

"If you have something with no emotion then it has no goals and no reason to get up in the morning. Emotion becomes the reward or punishment that will drive the robot to achieve its goals."

The past five years has seen dramatic leaps in technology needed to build better robots. Artificial intelligence has made it possible to create robots that can solve problems and learn. Sony has already produced a robot dog, Aibo, that learns behaviour from its owner's commands and can recognise faces.