Ronald C. Arkin of Georgia Institute of Technology

 
Abstract: Expanding our work in understanding the relationships maintained in teams of 
humans and robots, this talk describes research on deception and its application within robotic 
systems. Earlier we explored the use of psychology as the basis for producing deceit in robotic 
systems in order to evade capture. More recent work involves studying squirrel hoarding and 
bird mobbing behavior as it applies to deception, in the first case for misleading a predator, and 
in the second for feigning strength when none exists. Next, we discuss other-deception, where 
deceit is performed for the benefit of the mark. Finally, newly completed research on team 
deception where groups of agents using shills that serve to mislead others is presented. Results 
are presented in both simulation and simple robotic systems, as well as consideration of the 
ethical implications of this research.

Biography:

Prof. Ronald C. Arkin is Professor Emeritus with the College 
of Computing at Georgia Tech.  Dr. Arkin served as a visiting 
Fellow/Scientist at number of universities in the world including 
Queensland University of Technology Australia, the Royal Institute 
of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, the Sony Intelligence 
Dynamics Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan and the Robotics and 
Artificial Intelligence Group in France.  Dr. Arkin’s research 
interests include behavior-based reactive control and action
oriented perception for mobile robots and unmanned aerial 
vehicles, hybrid deliberative/reactive software architectures, robot survivability, 
multiagent robotic systems, biorobots, human-robot interaction, robot ethics, and 
learning in autonomous systems. He has over 230 technical publications in these areas. Prof. 
Arkin has written a textbook entitled Behavior-Based Robotics published by MIT Press in May 
1998, co-edited (with G. Bekey) a book entitled Robot Colonies published in 1997, and a book 
published in Spring 2009 entitled Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots published 
by Chapman-Hall (Taylor & Francis). Funding sources have included the National Science 
Foundation, DARPA, DTRA, U.S. Army, Savannah River Technology Center, Honda R&D, 
Samsung, C.S. Draper Laboratory, SAIC, NAVAIR, and the Office of Naval Research. He also 
serves/served as a consultant for several major companies in the area of intelligent robotic 
systems. He has provided expert testimony to the United Nations, the International Committee of 
the Red Cross, the Pentagon and others on Autonomous Systems Technology. Prof. Arkin was 
named a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology 
in 2012 and a Distinguished Visitor for the IEEE Computer Society in 2023. He was elected 
a Fellow of the IEEE in 2003.

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