Cognitive Robots and the Conscious Mind: A Review of the Global Workspace Theory
Current Robotics Reports June 1, 2021 Alessandro Signa, Antonio Chella, Manuel Gentile
Consciousness remains undefined despite centuries of study, leading to multiple theoretical models. Baars' Global Workspace Theory is currently ranked the most promising theory of consciousness, yet few mathematical models of cognitive architectures inspired by it exist, and most are a decade old—outpaced by advances in artificial intelligence. Recent publications offer simple, computer-implementable mathematical models. This paper reviews consciousness and robot consciousness, introduces Baars' theory, and describes the most promising cognitive architecture models that implement it, noting their features.