Memristive Circuit Design of Emotional Generation and Evolution Based on Skin-Like Sensory Processor

Sensory processor in human skin is used for processing and transmitting sensations to the brain, which leads to body actions and emotional responses. In this paper, a memristive circuit of emotional generation and evolution based on skin-like sensory processor is proposed. The circuit includes: first, memristive skin-like sensory processor module; second, emotional generation and evolution module; and third, emotional expression module. The first module consists of four single-memristor skin-like sensory processors, which correspond to process sensations of pain, cold, warm, and tactile. It will automatically return to its initial state if sensory signals disappear. But if sensory signals are much strong, it will not automatically return to initial state unless applied "restoring signal" just like a surgical operation. The second module realizes a conversion mechanism from sensations to emotions using memristor as emotional synapse. Given signals from skin-like sensory processor, the memristance will decrease, which means the extent of emotion will increase, such as more happy. This is the emotional generation. The extent of emotion will be changed if the same sensation is applied to skin-like sensory processor repeatedly, which is the emotional evolution. The third module can show the generated emotions visually. The simulation results in PSPICE show that the proposed circuit can generate and evolve emotions like human beings after processing sensory signals from skin. The proposed circuit can be applied in a perceptual robot platform to realize the conversion from sensations to emotions, enabling the robot to have the ability to sense and process information.