The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has been unveiling a horde of hypersensitive, neurotic robots in Hong Kong this week during its International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

Throughout the years, researchers have noticed that although robots can perform precise functions well, like running calculations, playing chess, or analyzing logistics, when it comes to practical functions such as movement and visual recognition, robots have rudimentary capabilities.

The emerging field of robotics known as “neurobiological robotics” aims to emulate the function of a human brain and supplant human conditions such as fear, reticence, obsessive compulsive disorders into software that dictates a smarter and more logical robot.

Neurobiological robotics is a logical step for robotics; scientists have been using biomimicry to model robots after cheetahs, dogs, kangaroos, and even velociraptors. If robots can be physically improved when modeled after biological precedence, scientists then assume that copying neurological functions of humans and animals could likewise produce astonishing upgrades to the underlying software and improve robotic interaction with the broader world.

“We’re trying to make the robot brain more like a human brian,” said Jeff Krichmar, professor of cognitive science at the University of California Irvine. “The brain has incredible flexibility and adaptability. If you look at any artificial system, it’s far more brittle than biology.”

Krichmar has been experimenting with building neurotic robots that exhibit signs of obsessive compulsive disorder and agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces. In order to create such robots, Krichmar has been modeling his robots after that of a mouse in a cage.

“If you put a rodent in a room that is open and unfamiliar, it will hug the walls,” Krichmar said. “It will hide until it becomes comfortable, then it will move across the room. It will wait until it feels comfortable. We did that with a robot and made it so it was so anxious it would never cross the room.”

Krichmar’s team first analyzes a rodent’s varying levels of dopamine and serotonin, the two brain chemicals that regulate pleasure centers and well-being. The effects of the hormones on the rodent are recorded and replicated in the robot’s software.

“We’re mimicking the action of the chemicals with equations,” Krichmar said. “We are doing the mathematical models of brain or cognitive system, then putting that in software and it becomes the controller of the robot.”

The ultimate goal is to create a robot that uses fear and caution to make better decisions when being employed in real world scenarios. For example, a search and rescue drone created with neurobiological processes in mind can be programmed to be wary of foul weather so that it might seek shelter until it is safe to continue its mission, rather than fly into a storm in a foolhardy manner.