@inproceedings {2021, title = {Adaptation-By-Proxy: Contagion Effect of Social Buffering in an Artificial Society}, booktitle = {ALIFE 2021: The 2021 Conference on Artificial Life}, year = {2021}, note = {Download (Open Access) }, month = {07/2021}, publisher = {The MIT Press}, organization = {The MIT Press}, abstract = {The {\textquotedblleft}social buffering{\textquotedblright} phenomenon proposes that social support facilitates wellbeing by reducing stress in a number of different ways. While this phenomenon may benefit agents with social support from others, its potential effects on the wider social group are less clear. Using a biologically-inspired artificial life model, we have investigated how some of the hypothesised hormonal mechanisms that underpin the {\textquotedblleft}social buffering{\textquotedblright} phenomenon affect the wellbeing and interactions of agents without social support across numerous social and physical contexts. We tested these effects in a small, rank-based society, with half of the agents endowed with numerous hormonal mechanisms associated with {\textquotedblleft}social buffering{\textquotedblright}, and half without. Surprisingly, our results found that these {\textquotedblleft}social buffering{\textquotedblright} mechanisms provided survival-related advantages to agents without social support across numerous conditions. We found that agents with socially-adaptive mechanisms themselves become a proxy for adaptation, and suggest that, in some (artificial) societies, {\textquotedblleft}social buffering{\textquotedblright} may be a contagious phenomenon.}, doi = {10.1162/isal_a_00424}, url = {https://direct.mit.edu/isal/proceedings/isal/90/102917}, author = {Imran Khan and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {2021, title = {Affect-grounded Language Learning in a Robot}, booktitle = {FEEL-COG: The Role of Affect in the Development of Cognition, ICDL 2021 Workshop}, year = {2021}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, month = {08/2021}, url = {https://whisperproject.eu/workshop-feel-cog}, author = {Zakaria Lemhaouri and Laura Cohen and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {9998, title = {Adaptation and the Social Salience Hypothesis of Oxytocin: Early Experiments in a Simulated Agent Environment}, booktitle = {Proc. 2nd Symposium on Social Interactions in Complex Intelligent Systems (SICIS)}, series = {Proc. 2018 Convention of the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB 2018)}, year = {2018}, note = {Download full proceedings (PDF)}, month = {04/2018}, pages = {2{\textendash}9}, address = {Liverpool, UK}, abstract = {Allostasis is a mechanism that permits adaptation of an organism as a response to changing (physical or social) environmental conditions. Allostasis is driven by a number of factors, including regulation through hormonal mechanisms. Oxytocin (OT) is a hormone that has been found to play a role in regulating social behaviours and adaptation. However, the concrete effects that OT promotes remain unclear and controversial. One of these effects is on the attention paid to social cues (social salience). Two opposing hypotheses have been proposed. One hypothesis is that adaptation is achieved by increasing attention to social cues (increasing social salience), the other that adaptation is achieved by decreasing attention to social cues (decreasing social salience). In this paper, we present agent simulation experiments that test these two contrasting hypotheses under different environmental conditions related to food availability: a comfortable environment, a challenging environment, and a very challenging environment. Our results show that, for the particular conditions modelled, increased social salience through the release of simulated oxytocin presents significant advantages in the challenging conditions.}, url = {http://aisb2018.csc.liv.ac.uk/PROCEEDINGS\%20AISB2018/Social\%20Interactions\%20in\%20Complex\%20Intelligent\%20Systems\%20(SICIS)\%20-\%20AISB2018.pdf}, author = {Imran Khan and Lewis, Matthew and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {4, title = {An Affective Autonomous Robot Toddler to Support the Development of Self-Efficacy in Diabetic Children}, booktitle = {Proc. 23rd Annual IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE RO-MAN 2014)}, year = {2014}, note = {Download (or Download authors{\textquoteright} draft)}, month = {08/2014}, pages = {359{\textendash}364}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Edinburgh}, abstract = {We present a software architecture and an interaction scenario for an autonomous robot toddler designed to support the development of self-efficacy in diabetic children, and discuss its potential medical benefits. We pay particular attention to the affective and social aspects of the interaction, as well as the importance of autonomy in the robot, examining their relationships to our scientific and therapeutic goals.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-6763-6}, doi = {10.1109/ROMAN.2014.6926279}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6926279/}, author = {Lewis, Matthew and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @article {2014, title = {Arousal Regulation and Affective Adaptation to Human Responsiveness by a Robot that Explores and Learns a Novel Environment}, journal = {Frontiers in Neurorobotics}, volume = {8}, year = {2014}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {17}, abstract = {In the context of our work in developmental robotics regarding robot-human caregiver interactions, in this paper we investigate how a "baby" robot that explores and learns novel environments can adapt its affective regulatory behavior of soliciting help from a "caregiver" to the preferences shown by the caregiver in terms of varying responsiveness. We build on two strands of previous work that assessed independently (a) the differences between two "idealized" robot profiles {\textendash} a "needy" and an "independent" robot {\textendash} in terms of their use of a caregiver as a means to regulate the "stress" (arousal) produced by the exploration and learning of a novel environment, and (b) the effects on the robot behaviors of two caregiving profiles varying in their responsiveness {\textendash} "responsive" and "non-responsive" {\textendash} to the regulatory requests of the robot. Going beyond previous work, in this paper we (a) assess the effects that the varying regulatory behavior of the two robot profiles has on the exploratory and learning patterns of the robots; (b) bring together the two strands previously investigated in isolation and take a step further by endowing the robot with the capability to adapt its regulatory behavior along the "needy" and "independent" axis as a function of the varying responsiveness of the caregiver; and (c) analyze the effects that the varying regulatory behavior has on the exploratory and learning patterns of the adaptive robot.}, issn = {1662-5218}, doi = {10.3389/fnbot.2014.00017}, url = {http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbot.2014.00017}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lewis, Matthew and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {2013, title = {Are Discrete Emotions Useful in Human-Robot Interaction? Feedback from Motion Capture Analysis}, booktitle = {Proc. Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII 2013)}, year = {2013}, note = {Download (or Download authors{\textquoteright} draft)}, month = {09/2013}, pages = {97{\textendash}102}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Geneva, Switzerland}, abstract = {We have conducted a study analyzing motion capture data of bodily expressions of human emotions towards the goal of building a social expressive robot that interacts with and supports hospitalized children. Although modeling emotional expression (and recognition) in (by) robots in terms of discrete categories presents advantages such as ease and clarity of interpretation, our results show that this approach also poses a number of problems. The main issues relate to the loss of subtle expressions and feelings, individual features, context, and social interaction elements that are present in real life.}, doi = {10.1109/ACII.2013.23}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6681414}, author = {Lewis, Matthew and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {2009, title = {Assessing Human Responses to Different Robot Attachment Profiles}, booktitle = {Proc. 18th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE RO-MAN 2009)}, year = {2009}, month = {09/2009}, pages = {251{\textendash}256}, publisher = {IEEE Press}, organization = {IEEE Press}, address = {Toyama, Japan}, abstract = {Emotional regulation is believed to be crucial for a balanced emotional and cognitive development in infants. Furthermore, during the first year of a child{\textquoteright}s life, the mother is playing a central role in shaping the development, through the attachment bond she shares with her child. Based on previous work on our model of arousal modulation for an autonomous robot, we present an experiment where human adults were interacting visually and via tactile contact with a SONY Aibo robot exploring a children playmat. The robots had two different attachment profiles: one requiring less attention then the other. The subjects answered one questionnaire per robot, describing how they would rate their experience with each robot. The analysis of the subjects{\textquoteright} responses allow us to conclude that this setting was sufficient to elicit positive and active caretaking-like behaviours from the subjects, according to the profile of the robot they interacted with.}, isbn = {978-1-4244-5081-7}, issn = {1944-9445}, doi = {10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326216}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5326216/}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Kim A. Bard and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {2008, title = {Adaptive Olfactory Encoding in Agents Controlled by Spiking Neural Networks}, booktitle = {From Animals to Animats 10: Proc. 10th International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB 2008)}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS)}, volume = { 5040}, year = {2008}, month = {07/2008}, pages = {148{\textendash}158}, publisher = {Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg}, organization = {Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg}, address = {Osaka, Japan}, abstract = {We created a neural architecture that can use two different types of information encoding strategies depending on the environment. The goal of this research was to create a simulated agent that could react to two different overlapping chemicals having varying concentrations. The neural network controls the agent by encoding its sensory information as temporal coincidences in a low concentration environment, and as firing rates at high concentration. With such an architecture, we could study synchronization of firing in a simple manner and see its effect on the agent{\textquoteright}s behaviour.}, isbn = {978-3-540-69134-1}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-69134-1_15}, url = {http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-69134-1_15}, author = {Oros, Nicolas and Volker Steuber and Davey, Neil and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Roderick G Adams}, editor = {Asada, Minoru and Hallam, John C T and Jean-Arcady Meyer and Tani, Jun} } @inbook {2008, title = {Animating Affective Robots for Social Interaction}, booktitle = {Animating Expressive Characters for Social Interaction}, series = {Advances in Consciousness Research}, number = {74}, year = {2008}, pages = {103{\textendash}121}, publisher = {John Benjamins Publishing Co.}, organization = {John Benjamins Publishing Co.}, isbn = {978-90-272-5210-4}, doi = {10.1075/aicr.74.10can}, author = {Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Aylett, Ruth} } @book {2008, title = {Animating Expressive Characters for Social Interaction}, series = {Advances in Consciousness Research}, number = {74}, year = {2008}, publisher = {John Benjamins Publishing Co.}, organization = {John Benjamins Publishing Co.}, isbn = {9789027289834}, doi = {10.1075/aicr.74}, editor = {Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Aylett, Ruth} } @inbook {2007, title = {Anticipating Rewards in Continuous Time and Space: A Case Study in Developmental Robotics}, booktitle = {Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems: From Brains to Individual and Social Behavior}, series = {Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence}, volume = {4520}, year = {2007}, pages = {267{\textendash}284}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Berlin, Heidelberg}, abstract = {This paper presents the first basic principles, implementation and experimental results of what could be regarded as a new approach to reinforcement learning, where agents{\textemdash}physical robots interacting with objects and other agents in the real world{\textemdash}can learn to anticipate rewards using their sensory inputs. Our approach does not need discretization, notion of events, or classification, and instead of learning rewards for the different possible actions of an agent in all the situations, we propose to make agents learn only the main situations worth avoiding and reaching. However, the main focus of our work is not reinforcement learning as such, but modeling cognitive development on a small autonomous robot interacting with an {\textquotedblleft}adult{\textquotedblright} caretaker, typically a human, in the real world; the control architecture follows a Perception-Action approach incorporating a basic homeostatic principle. This interaction occurs in very close proximity, uses very coarse and limited sensory-motor capabilities, and affects the {\textquotedblleft}well-being{\textquotedblright} and affective state of the robot. The type of anticipatory behavior we are concerned with in this context relates to both sensory and reward anticipation. We have applied and tested our model on a real robot.}, isbn = {978-3-540-74261-6}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-74262-3_15}, url = {https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783540742616}, author = {Arnaud J Blanchard and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Martin V Butz and Olivier Sigaud and Giovanni Pezzulo and Gianluca Baldassarre} } @article {2006, title = {Achieving Human-Like Qualities in Interactive Virtual and Physical Humanoids, Special issue of the International Journal of Humanoid Robotics}, year = {2006}, issn = {0219-8436}, editor = {Catherine Pelachaud and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @article {2006, title = {Attachment Bonds for Human-Like Robots}, journal = {International Journal of Humanoid Robotics}, volume = {3}, year = {2006}, pages = {301{\textendash}320}, abstract = {If robots are to be truly integrated in humans{\textquoteright} everyday environment, they cannot be simply (pre-)designed and directly taken "off the shelf" and embedded into a real-life setting. Also, technical excellence and human-like appearance and "superficial" traits of their behavior are not enough to make social robots trusted, believable, and accepted. Fuller and deeper integration into human environments would require that, like children, robots develop embedded in the social environment in which they will fulfill their roles. An important element to bootstrap and guide this integration is the establishment of affective bonds between the "infant" robot and the adults among whom it develops, from whom it learns, and who it will later have to look after. In this paper, we present a Perception{\textendash}Action architecture and experiments to simulate imprinting {\textemdash} the establishment of strong attachment links with a "caregiver" {\textemdash} in a robot. Following recent theories, we do not consider imprinting as rigidly timed and irreversible, but as a more flexible phenomenon that allows for further adaptation as a result of reward-based learning through experience. After the initial imprinting, adaptation is achieved in the context of a history of "affective" interactions between the robot and a human, driven by "distress" and "comfort" responses in the robot.}, issn = {0219-8436}, doi = {10.1142/S0219843606000771}, url = {http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219843606000771}, author = {Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Arnaud J Blanchard and Jacqueline Nadel} } @proceedings {2005, title = {Agents that Want and Like: Motivational and Emotional Roots of Cognition and Action. Papers from the AISB{\textquoteright}05 Symposium}, year = {2005}, publisher = {AISB}, address = {Hatfield, UK}, isbn = {1-902956-41-7}, url = {https://www.aisb.org.uk/publications/proceedings/aisb2005/2_Agents_Final.pdf}, editor = {Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @proceedings {2004, title = {Architectures for Modeling Emotion: Cross-Disciplinary Foundations}, year = {2004}, publisher = {AAAI Press}, editor = {Eva Hudlicka and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {2003, title = {Analyzing the Performance of "Winner-Take-All" and "Voting-Based" Action Selection Policies within the Two-Resource Problem}, booktitle = {Advances in Artificial Life: 7th European Conference, ECAL 2003}, series = {Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence}, volume = {2801}, year = {2003}, note = {Download}, month = {09/2003}, pages = {733{\textendash}742}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Dortmund, Germany}, abstract = {The problem of action selection for an autonomous creature implies resolving conflicts between competing behavioral alternatives. These conflicts can be resolved either via competition, following a {\textquotedblleft}winner-take-all{\textquotedblright} approach, or via cooperation in a {\textquotedblleft}voting-based{\textquotedblright} approach. In this paper we present two robotic architectures implementing these approaches, and report on experiments we have performed to compare their underlying optimization policies. We have framed this study within the context of the {\textquotedblleft}two-resource problem,{\textquotedblright} as it provides a widely used standard that favors systematic experimentation, analysis, and comparison of results.}, isbn = {978-3-540-20057-4}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-39432-7_79}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007\%2F978-3-540-39432-7_79}, author = {Avila-Garc{\'\i}a, Orlando and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Ren{\'e} te Boekhorst}, editor = {Banzhaf, Wolfgang and Christaller, Thomas and Dittrich, Peter and Kim, Jan T and Ziegler, Jens} } @article {2003, title = {Assistive technologies for the disabled and for the new generation of senior citizens: The e-Tools architecture}, journal = {AI Communications}, volume = {16}, year = {2003}, pages = {193{\textendash}207}, publisher = {IOS Press}, address = {Amsterdam, The Netherlands}, abstract = {In this paper we present our exploratory ideas about the integration of agent technology with other technologies to build specific e-tools for the disabled and for the new generation of senior citizens. "e-Tools" stands for Embedded Tools, as we aim to embed intelligent assistive devices in homes and other facilities, creating ambient intelligence environments to give support to patients and caregivers. In particular, we aim to explore the benefits of the concept of situated intelligence to build artefacts that will enhance the autonomy of the target user group in their daily life.}, issn = {0921-7126}, url = {http://content.iospress.com/articles/ai-communications/aic288}, author = {Cort{\'e}s, Ulises and Annicchiarico, Roberta and V{\'a}zquez-Salceda, Javier and Urdiales, Cristina and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Maite L{\'o}pez and Miquel S{\`a}nchez-Marr{\`e} and Carlo Caltagirone} } @inproceedings {1999, title = {Affect-Driven CBR to Generate Expressive Music}, booktitle = {Case-Based Reasoning Research and Development. Third International Conference on Case-Based Reasoning, ICCBR{\textquoteright}99}, series = {Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence}, volume = {1650}, year = {1999}, pages = {1{\textendash}13}, publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, organization = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, abstract = {We present an extension of an existing system, called SaxEx, capable of generating expressive musical performances based on Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) techniques. The previous version of SaxEx did not take into account the possibility of using affective labels to guide the CBR task. This paper discusses the introduction of such affective knowledge to improve the retrieval capabilities of the system. Three affective dimensions are considered{\textemdash}tender-aggressive, sad-joyful, and calm-restless that allow the user to declaratively instruct the system to perform according to any combination of five qualitative values along these three dimensions.}, isbn = {978-3-540-66237-2}, doi = {10.1007/3-540-48508-2_1}, author = {Josep Llu{\'\i}s Arcos and D Ca{\~n}amero and Ramon L{\'o}pez de M{\'a}ntaras}, editor = {Althoff, Klaus-Dieter and Bergmann, Ralph and L Karl Branting} } @inproceedings {1998, title = {Affect-Driven Generation of Expressive Musical Performances}, booktitle = {Emotional and Intelligent: The Tangled Knot of Cognition. Papers from the 1998 AAAI Fall Symposium}, year = {1998}, pages = {1{\textendash}6}, publisher = {AAAI Press}, organization = {AAAI Press}, author = {Josep Llu{\'\i}s Arcos and D Ca{\~n}amero and Ramon L{\'o}pez de M{\'a}ntaras} }