Companion robot

A companion robot is a robot created for the purposes of creating real or apparent companionship for human beings.[1] Target markets for companion robots include the elderly[2] and single children.[3]

Examples

There are several companion robot prototypes and these include Paro, CompanionAble, and EmotiRob, among others.

Paro

Paro is a pet-type robot system developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). The robot, which looked like a small seal, was designed for the care and support of old individuals especially those living on their own.[4] Experiments showed that Paro facilitated elderly residents to communicate with each other, which led to psychological improvements.[4]

CompanionAble

This robot is classified as an FP 7 EU project and is built to "cooperate with Ambient Assistive Living environment".[5] The autonomous device, which is also built to support the elderly, helps its owner interact with smart home environment as well as care givers. It is capable of speech and movement and can detect and track people at home.[5]

EmotiRob

EmotiRob is a robot being developed by a French team to engage fragile children emotionally. It has cognitive capabilities, which are further extended so that the robot can have a natural linguistic interaction with its owner through the DRAGON speech-recognition software developed by a company called NUANCE.[6] Such interaction is expected to facilitate a child's cognitive development and develop new learning patterns.[6]

References
  1. "Companion Robots Are Here. Just Don't Fall in Love With Them". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  2. "Robot caregivers are saving the elderly from lives of loneliness". Engadget. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  3. "'iPal' robot companion for China's lonely children". Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  4. Xiong, Caihua; Huang, Yongan; Xiong, Youlun (2008). Intelligent Robotics and Applications: First International Conference, ICIRA 2008 Wuhan, China, October 15-17, 2008 Proceedings. Berlin: Springer. pp. 538–539. ISBN 9783540885122.
  5. Lamers, Maarten H.; Verbeek, Fons J. (2011). Human-Robot Personal Relationships: Third International Conference, HRPR 2010, Leiden, The Netherlands, June 23-24, 2010, Revised Selected Papers. Heidelberg: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 13. ISBN 9783642193842.
  6. Sojka, Petr; Horak, Aleš; Kopecek, Ivan (2008). Text, Speech and Dialogue: 11th International Conference, TSD 2008, Brno, Czech Republic, September 8-12, 2008, Proceedings. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 551. ISBN 9783540873907.

See also


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