Page 43 - Designing Sociable Robots

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24 Chapter 2

Personal Robots

There are a number of robotic projects that focus on operating within human environ-
ments. Typically these robots are not humanoid in form, but are designed to support natural
communication channels such as gesture or speech.
There are a few robots that are being designed for domestic use. For systems such as
these, safety and minimizing impact on human living spaces are important issues as well as
performance and ease of use. Many applications of this kind focus on providing assistance
to the elderly or to the disabled. The MOVAID system (Dario & Susani, 1996) and a similar
project at Vanderbilt University (Kawamura et al., 1996). In a somewhat related effort,
Dautenhahn (1999) has employed autonomous robots to assist in social therapy of fairly
high-functioning autistic children.
In the entertainment market, there are a growing number of synthetic pets (both robotic
and digital). Sony’s robot dog Aibo (shown in figure 2.5) can perceive a few simple visual
and auditory features that allow it to interact with a pink ball and objects that appear skin-
toned. It is mechanically quite sophisticated, able to locomote, to get up if it falls down,
and to perform an assortment of tricks. There are simpler, less expensive robotic dogs such
as Tiger Electronic’s iCybie. One of the first digital pets include Tamagotchis which the
child could carry with him/her on a keychain and care for (or the toy would get “sick”
and eventually “die”). There are also animated pets that live on the computer screen such

Figure 2.5
Sony’s Aibo is a sophisticated robot dog.