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The researchers, from the University of California, Davis, have developed a system that allows follower robots to use behavioral cues from human leaders and other robots in order to track and follow them. What this means is that robots may soon be able to respond to human emotions appropriately and thus act more naturally even though it’s still not yet possible to implement robots emotions.

These robots would now take in behavioral cues and act accordingly, thanks to mirrors and certain other tracking methods. It seems to have paid off, as the main idea was to reduce the number of instructions a robot might need. Also, compatibility with human behavior would make therobots more acceptable to humans. The ability to follow will likely be essential as robots continue to work alongside people more often than not, such as in office buildings, hospitals and airports.

“As humans, we constantly incorporate other peoples’ current actions as clues (cues) as to what they may do in the future,” Sanjay Joshi of the University of California, Davis, told PhysOrg.com. “For instance, we have a ‘sixth sense’ on the highway to know that a certain car will swerve into our lane soon, based on the driver’s current driving patterns. Then, we may become more defensive in our own driving. In our work, we wanted to begin the process of allowingrobots to use behavioral cues (of humans or other robots), to make the robot’s mission more reliable and accurate. In social work environments populated by numerous people and robots, these types of cues should be abundant.”