Abstract
Zoomorphic (animal-like) sociorobots (also known as animalbots) are primarily used as a means of socialization of people who need companion because for various reasons become or feel lonely. As a response to the shortage of human social interaction, roboticists have turned their interest to build zoomorphic sociorobots (dogbots, catbots, etc.). Due to cultural reasons, most of the commercialized sociorobots for entertainment and therapy are produced in Japan, where people believe that robots and other artifacts have a spirit and treat them with affection. This chapter provides a brief conceptual description of the following animalbots: AIBO dogbot (Sony), i-Cat robot (Philips), Paro seal robot (AIST), Pleo dinosaur robot (Ugobe), Teddy bear robot (Fujitsu), NeCoRo catbot (Omron), and Probot elephant-like sociorobot (VUB).
The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men become robots.
Erich Fromm
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Tzafestas, S.G. (2016). Zoomorphic Sociorobots. In: Sociorobot World. Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering, vol 80. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21422-1_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21422-1_8
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