Determination and control of activities of an emotional system

• US 7,024,277 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2002
• Issued: 04/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Alfred Schurmann
• Original Assignee: Alfred Schurmann
• Inventors: Schurmann, Alfred
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Marc, McDieunel
• Application Number:
  US10/363,157
• Publication Number:
  US 20040093121A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: 700245-246, 700/248, 700257-260, 700/264, 700/253, 318/568.1, 318/568.11, 318/568.12, 318/568.2, 318/569, 704/31, 704/207, 704/509, 704/270, 901/1, 901/15, 701/23
• US Class Current: 700/245
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/004 Artificial life, i.e. computing arrangements simulating life

Abstract

A method and a sub-system, henceforth called method DKA, for the determination and control of the activities of an emotional system aS, belonging to the class of autonomous, motivated agents and robots, is described. The method DKA determines the current motivation of the system aS to carry out an activity. Said motivation is determined by stimulus patterns in situation models and the intensities of the satisfactions and the desires with regard to the needs of the system aS. Priorities for the activities of the aS are determined by motivations. DKA controls sub-activities which, at the request of the system aS, are carried out by other agents/robots. The method DKA can assess which objects, situations and activities are presently good and which are bad for the system aS. The applied internal representation of the world of the system aS can include very abstract situation models. Emotional systems, controlled by the method DKA, are particularly suitable: for the care of the sick, as robotic servants for carrying out domestic tasks and for routine client services.

Claims

1. A method for determination and control of activities of a non-biological emotional system, denoted by aS, said system comprising:

(i) a subsystem, denoted by WP, for perception of objects and situations, (ii) a set of needs, (iii) rules and procedures for determining emotional intensities, and (iv) models of objects and situations which can occur in the surrounding of the system aS, where to such model can be connected stimulus patterns with respect to said needs, said method, comprising;

(a) a set of activity schemas, or in short activities, which the system aS can execute and which include said in (iv) situation models some of which are initial and end situations of the activity, and some of the end situations are goal situations;

(b) determining the activity which handles a situation currently perceived and which is not an expected situation of an activity being executed or interrupted, putting this activity with this situation into the list of activities waiting for execution, and updating the emotional intensities depending on said perceived situation using said in (iii) rules and procedures;

(c) intensities of satisfactions and desires with regard to said in (ii) needs, and other emotional intensities of the system aS, where these intensities are updated by using said in (iii) rules and procedures;

(d) associating to each currently perceived situation the activity which is being executed or interrupted, when this situation is expected in this activity at present;

(e) associating to each command currently perceived the activity which accomplishes this command and the actual initial situation of this activity, and putting this command with the associated activity and said initial situation into the list of activities waiting for execution;

(f) determining the execution of activities and commands waiting for execution by means of the present motivations of the system aS to execute these activities and commands;

(g) updating the intensities of satisfactions and desires and other emotional intensities of the system aS with regard to the needs occurring in the stimulus patterns which are in the achieved or not achieved end situation of the activity which has been finished or abandoned; and

(h) updating the intensities of satisfactions and desires of the system aS with regard to the need to perform commands and wishes of an authorized person or system, and the need for recognition and acknowledgement, when a command has been finished or abandoned.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the present motivation of the emotional system aS to execute an activity is determined by stimulus intensities of the end situations of this activity at the present time and in the future, wherein a stimulus intensity of a situation is determined by stimulus patterns connected with this situation, where a stimulus pattern shows the changes of satisfaction and desire intensities with regard to the need connected with this stimulus pattern in a period of time, and

the intensities of satisfactions and desires of the systems aS at the present time and in the future with regard to the needs which are connected with said stimulus patterns.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the present motivation of the emotional system aS to execute a command is determined by the motivation of the system aS to execute the activity which accomplishes this command, and the intensities of satisfactions and desires of the system aS with regard to the need to perform and fulfil the commands and wishes of an authorized person or system, and the need for recognition and acknowledgment.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein an activity schema, or in short activity, contains a connected graph, wherein:

the nodes are said in claim 1 situation models, or in short situations, wherein some of these situations are initial or end situations of the activity and some end situations are goal situations, and to each end situation is connected at least one stimulus pattern with respect to a need of the system aS;

to each arc is associated a sub-activity, which specifies the actions and operations which should be executed to achieve the next node/situation of the sub-activity, wherein the motivation to execute a sub-activity is determined by the stimulus intensities of the end situations of the activity, and sub-activity includes a control-activity if this sub-activity should be executed not by the system aS but by an other object.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein determining and controlling the execution of activities waiting for execution comprising the steps of

choosing from the list of activities waiting for execution the activity with the maximum motivation to execute its current sub-activity, and

interrupting the execution of the sub-activity which is being executed and continuing the execution of the chosen sub-activity with the greatest motivation, if this motivation is greater than the motivation to execute the sub-activity being executed till now.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein controlling the execution of a sub-activity by an other object comprising

a control-activity connected with said sub-activity comprising situation models for expected situations which can appear when this sub-activity is executed by said object, and elementary activities/operations, especially an observation activity, which the emotional system aS executes;

a motivation of the system aS to execute said control-activity where this motivation is determined by

the duration of the execution of this sub-activity after the last execution of the control-activity by the system aS, and

the motivation to execute the sub-activity in which said control-activity occurs;

executing said elementary activities/operations to recognize whether a new said expected situation appeared;

and executing said elementary activities/operations to correct or abandon the execution of this sub-activity by said object, if said appeared situation shows that the execution of this sub-activity is not optimal or wrong.

7. A method for perception of objects and situations, which specify said perception subsystem WP of the emotional system aS of claim 1, comprising:

focusing the observation activity of the system aS on these objects and situations, in the actual surrounding of the system aS, for which aS, at present time, has high intensities of desires for attention and curiosity/knowledge;

building an internal representation of the currently identified surrounding by means of a tree, wherein;

each node of the tree represents an actually recognized object,

the successors of a node are the recognized objects which are at present in the object represented by said node, and

recognized situations which are actually in an object are registered in the node representing this object; and

identifying objects and situations by means of a directed graph which represents the structures and relations of the object and situation models in the world of the emotional system aS, where the nodes of the graph are, said in (iv) of claim 1, object and situation models.