Artificial Intelligence
Introduction
Can a robot have emotions like we do? This question has been asked in stories and movies throughout human history. Although this idea seems eccentric, the study of human emotion due to the biological aspects of the human brain can help answer this provocative question.

From the fictional thriller film iRobot:

Robotic Physics vs. Human Physics
Biologically, the survival of an animal depends on four essential aspects of life: feeding, fighting, fleeing, and reproduction. When designing the brain of a robot, the network would comprise of a stack of modules, each with a slightly different selection of inputs; each module would decide to which of the four aspects listed above the robot would respond to. The inputs would compete and switch between each “mode” until reaching a consensus; ultimately, a hierarchical structure that computes modes and then act within the modes would be the heart of the robotic brain.

Robotic Emotions
Similar to how people encounter and interpret problems within our everyday lives, the proposed robotic brain would behave based on the modes of the four essential aspects of life. A stimulus would cause the robot to select an appropriate mode and then strategize within the mode to form a response; this response would be defined as artificial intelligence or artificial emotion. Obviously of the two types of emotion prevalent for humans: (1) emotional expression for communication and social coordination and (2) emotion for organization of behavior, the second type would be prominent within the robotic brain. The use of modes in the robot’s decision-making based on artificial emotion would cause fast communication of modal commitment. Robot coordination would be one result of this relation.

Emotion and Cognition
Emotion would essentially change the characteristics of cognition of the robot, much like it does within our own brains. People use emotion to prioritize the usage of the four essential biological aspects of life; a robot uses an operating-system which creates a hierarchical assessment of task priorities. This helps the robotic brain to cope with the complexity of the environment. Constraints imposed by time, physical boundaries, and energy resources would cause the robotic brain to adapt the hierarchical grouping of tasks to match the needs of the robot, much as we use emotion to adjust out priorities.