Emotional models for multi-modal communication of robot partners

This paper discusses the availability of emotional models for natural communication of robot partners with people. Recently, the need of robot partners to support elderly people in their daily life is increasing. Such a robot should have an emotional model in order to co-exist with people, and to realize natural communication with people. In this paper, we propose several computational models for emotional interactions of robot partners based on computational intelligence. First, we discuss the functions of emotion in social interaction. Next, we propose an emotional model based on emotions, feelings, and mood. Furthermore, we propose a method for multi-modal communication based on the emotional model. Finally, we show several experimental results of the proposed method, and discuss the availability of the emotional models.