Emotion Understanding from the Perspective of Autonomous Robots Research

In this paper, I discuss some of the contributions that modeling emotions in autonomous robots can make towards understanding human emotions-'as sited in the brain' and as used in our interactions with the environment-and emotions in general. Such contributions are linked, on the one hand, to the potential use of such robotic models as tools and 'virtual laboratories' to test and explore systematically theories and models of human emotions, and on the other hand to a modeling approach that fosters conceptual clarification and operationalization of the relevant aspects of theoretical notions and models. As illustrated by an overview of recent advances in the field, this area is still in its infancy. However, the work carried out already shows that we share many conceptual problems and interests with other disciplines in the affective sciences and that sound progress necessitates multidisciplinary efforts.