Sep 15 2010
Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing’s Regents Professor Ronald Arkin and its Research Engineer Alan Wagner conducted experiments at the Georgia Institute of Technology to investigate the method of robot deception. Ronald Arkin has stated that their specific set of instructions will help a robot to decide whether to delude a human or a robot. He added that they had developed various methods through which the robot can choose the appropriate strategy for hiding.
The outcome of their robot research and hypothetical and cognitive deception modeling were released online in the International Journal of Social Robotics on September 3. Since the researchers had investigated various methods of robot deception from a universal outlook, the results of their experiments is valid for all types of interactions including human-robot and robot-robot. Office of Naval Research sponsored this project.
It was expected that in the coming years, these deceptive robots will be significant for various fields like defense and life saving operations. Also these robots will be highly successful in deceiving the enemies, thereby establishing the safety of vital information. He added that deception is a vital tool in the interactive cache of the robot.
In order to create programs that can provide the hiding phenomenon, Wagner and Arkin concentrated on the activities, principles and interactions of a robot which is trying to deceive another robot. The initial phase involved giving instructions by creating algorithms with the help of interdependence theory and game theory to the deceptive robot regarding the identification of the right circumstance at which deception has to be initiated. In order to assess their programs, the researchers involved two automated robots and performed 20 hide-and-seek trials.
According to these researchers, ethical aspects pertaining to the development of deceptive robots are to be taken into account to ensure that these robots are reliable for the welfare of the society. They strongly support discussions regarding various policies or other guiding principles that restrain the progress of these robots.
Source: http://www.gatech.edu