An Architecture for Emotion

The addition of emotions may be the key to producing rational behavior in autonomous agents. For situated agents, a different perspective on learning is proposed which relies on the agent’s ability to react in an emotional way to its dynamically changing environment. Here an architecture of mind is presented with the ability to display adaptive emotional states of varying types and intensities, and an implementation, "Conscious" Mattie (CMattie), of this architecture is discussed. Using this architecture, CMattie will be able to interact with her environment in a way that includes emotional content at a basic level. In addition she will learn more complex emotions which will enable her to react to her situation in a more complex manner. A general description is given of the emotional mechanisms of the architecture and its effects on learning are explained.