Psychorobotics: A Descriptive-Functional Framework for the Analysis of Intelligent Robotic Systems

The increasing complexity of robotic systems equipped with artificial intelligence—particularly those characterized by embodiment (i.e., the integration of body, environment, and computational processes), adaptivity, and decision-making under conditions of uncertainty—raises questions that are not yet addressed within a unified framework across existing disciplines. In recent years, multiple research strands have emerged—including cognitive robotics, embodied AI, machine behaviour, and the study of decision architectures—each addressing specific aspects of artificial system behavior. However, a unified theoretical framework capable of providing an integrated account of the structured internal dynamics (i.e., operational configurations and functional relations) that mediate between perception, processing, and action—at a descriptive level intermediate between technical implementation and observable behavior—is currently missing as a clearly defined level of analysis. This paper introduces and theoretically grounds a distinct field of study, termed psychorobotics, conceived as an interdisciplinary domain dedicated to the systematic analysis of the internal processes of intelligent robotic systems. These processes are inferred and systematically modeled without attributing mental states in a phenomenological sense, but through the adoption of descriptive-functional, comparative, and operational models. Within this framework, psychorobotics establishes and articulates a level of analysis that has not yet been systematically defined in the study of intelligent systems. Within this perspective, psychorobotics does not constitute a transposition of human psychology onto artificial systems, nor a form of theoretical anthropomorphism, but operates as a functional level of analysis dedicated to the description and modeling of organized internal processes in systems characterized by selection among alternatives, operational priorities, constraint management, and dynamic adaptation to the environment. The paper examines the epistemological foundations of this proposal, distinguishing it from both engineering disciplines and the philosophy of mind, and explores its theoretical bases, internal structure, and methodological implications, contributing to the progressive formalization of a research domain that remains underdefined. It also discusses some of the main objections—such as the risk of anthropomorphism, overlap with existing domains, and the difficulty of conceptual delimitation—showing how these issues can be addressed through a rigorous definition of levels of analysis and criteria of validity. The paper concludes by arguing that psychorobotics constitutes an emerging research domain for which a first systematic theoretical articulation is provided, endowed with a coherent conceptual structure and open to further formalization through the integration of contributions from different domains and the progressive development of its own conceptual and methodological tools.