Publication

Merging sociality and robotics through an evolutionary perspective

Robotics, using social mechanisms like hormonal modulation, may accelerate our understanding of core sociality principles. By looking at social robotics through an evolutionary lens, we propose this field as a promising framework to investigate the fundamental bricks of sociality from an evolutionary perspective and for further development of social robots.

Author

Fabiola Diana, Lola Cañamero, Ruud Hortensius and Mariska E. Kret

Date

24 July 2024

Links

Science Robotics: 'Merging sociality and robotics through an evolutionary perspective'

The field of social robotics has grown into a successful interdisciplinary endeavor to provide solutions to worldwide societal issues. The prevailing perspective in social robotics uses a “top-down” approach, emphasizing the modeling of either complex
social behaviors or, sporadically, lower-level behaviors, but often in the context of human-robot interactions.

Although important insights are gained from such perspectives, we propose directing attention toward a “bottom-up” framework focused on interaction among robots. Such an approach not only offers a fresh perspective on the emergence of spontaneous social behaviors in robotic entities but also sheds light on the core principles underpinning sociality itself. Our intention is not to provide guidelines on the hard-wired implementation of socialness in robots. Rather, we aim to inspire interdisciplinary collaboration to uncover the emergence of social behaviors: By looking at social robotics through an evolutionary lens, we propose this field as a promising framework to investigate the fundamental bricks of sociality from an
evolutionary perspective and for further development of social robots.