Robots That Need To Mislead: Biologically-Inspired Machine Deception

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.