Are you a dog person or a cat person? Surprisingly, despite modernization and the social changes of the past few decades, people still love having a companion animal around. While it may seem like the strong bond between men and their pet animals is here to stay, technological advancements threaten to challenge it with a new development: robotic pets.
Man's best friend The dog's ancestor is the wolf, and it was the first animal that to be domesticated - about 12,000 years ago. Wolves warned men about the arrival of predators and in return got leftovers from hunting. The domestication of cats started about 10,000 yeas ago, when cats were found to be a great protection against all sort of pests and men were glad to adopt them.
Nowadays, dogs and cats function mainly as companion animals. Many people enjoy having them around simply for the purpose of company or entertainment. Along with dogs and cats, people have adopted many other types of animals as pets: rabbits, ferrets, hamsters, parrots, lizards, frogs and even snakes and tarantulas.
The benefits of having pets There are many benefits to adopting a pet: walking a dog can provide exercise, fresh air, and social interaction. Pets can give companionship to those who do not have adequate social interaction with other people. Furthermore, studies have shown that pets can help lower blood pressure, speed up recovery time, and reduce stress and anxiety.
But the main reason for having a pet around is usually the kids - there are many studies and researches that show that pets can have a great positive impact on children: pets can help socialize kids and increase their verbal skills, they can help teach them empathy and responsibility, they can increase their self-confidence, and there are even studies that have shown that growing up with a pet can decrease the risk of developing allergic sensitization .
With all of these benefits, it is no wonder that 68% of all U.S. households own at least one pet, and that the total pet industry expenditures in the U.S is almost 70 billion dollars! Where there is so much money, there is also a great potential for innovations.
The rise of the robo-pets A robotic pet is an artificially intelligent machine made in the image of an animal commonly kept as a pet. In 1999 Sony introduced to the world AIBO - the world first dog-robot. AIBO (相棒) means "pal" or "partner" in Japanese and this exactly is the purpose of this robot. AIBO uses AI to learn and interact with its owner and surroundings and to give some sort of an imitation of a real dog: wagging its tail, scratching its back and and more.
The first models of AIBO had many problems. Its movements were not smooth enough and it felt much like a robot than a dog. In 2006 Sony stopped manufacturing AIBO in an effort to make the company more profitable. However, last month they announced that they are going to restore its production with a brand new version.
The new version of AIBO uses ultra-compact actuators that allow its body to move along 22 axes, and its eyes use two special OLED panels to show a range of expressions. Sony claims that AIBO's behavior is adaptable, with the dog seeking out owners, learning what makes them happy and gradually growing accustomed to its environments.
In 2015 Habaro, the word's third largest toy maker, had started manufacturing lifelike robotic pets - currently focusing on cats and dogs. Their main audience is senior people who look for companionship, and this is exactly what these robots can offer them. In 2016 the New York Times Magazine posted a letter of recommendation for this toy, mentioning its significant effect on the writer's grandmother.
Today there are many types of robotic dogs available at the market: Tekno - a dog-robot created by ToyQuest, Poo-Chi - a dog-robot created by Sega and many others. Nevertheless, the new version of Sony's AIBO seems to transcend them all.
Not only dogs and cats
Pet robots don't only come out in the form of cats and dogs. Paro is a baby seal robot, which was developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Its purpose is to be very cute, in order to have a calming effect and to elicit emotional responses in hospitals and nursing home pattiens, similar to animal-assisted therapy.
Pleo is another interesting pet robot - a mini dinosaur robot. Like all pets, you can play with Pleo, but you also have to take care of it including feeding it and taking care of its health. Each Pleo is created with a unique "personality" that's defined by factors like courage, temper, obedience and more.
Pet-robots don't even have to be based on real animals. Cozmo and Domgy are two recent examples of commercial AI robots that don't resemble to any animal, but still function as kind of a modern pet. Apparently, people don't have to believe that their pet is really alive in order to enjoy its company.
Many advantages
Pet robots have many advantages over "regular pets": their maintenance is much less expansive, they don't need to be fed, they are hypoallergenic, they don't leave any mess, they will never get sick or die and you can always turn them off whenever you like.
While having a pet robots may never be exactly the same as having a living animal as a pet, many of the benefits of having a pet still hold: a study from 2009 conducted among children between the ages of 7 and 15 showed that while most of the children knew that AIBO was not a real animal, that didn’t stop them from caring about it, and 80% of them felt that they would appreciate its companionship.
Another interesting study from 2013 conducted among elderly people at a retirement home, found that interactions with Paro, the robotic seal, made participants feel less lonely and stimulated conversations between residents.
So where are all the pet robots?
While pet robots have been around for almost 2 decades, they still haven't become a common part of our everyday life. Unlike industrial robots and service robots, in which their function is the most important thing, when it comes to pet robots the most important thing is that they have to provide the feeling that they are not robots, and we are still not there.
The pet robots that available today still look and feel much like a robot or a toy than an intelligent pet. There are two expected technological advancements that will give these pet robots the boost they need:
Robotic engineering - Robot movements at the future are going to be much smoother and they will be able to preform more complex tasks in a way that will seem natural to us.
Artificial intelligence - Robot behavior in the future is going to be much more sophisticated, and they will have better learning abilities and more unique personalities.
A part of the IOT
With these technological leaps, we can expect pet robots to become very common and popular. These robots will be online at all times and will become an integral part of the internet of things (IoT).
The pet robots of the future will be able to communicate with each other and with other online services such as the online therapist. This way, for example, they will be able to become an integral part of an ongoing psychological treatment.
Pictures that will be taken by these pets will be upload to the cloud and to social medias instantly. This function already exist within social robots like Jibo and it's very likely that it will be much more popular at the future.
Not necessarily for the better
With all the benefits that pet robots holds, it's important to remember that they do come at a price: in our modern way of life, most of us have almost no daily interactions with animals. The entrance of these pet robots into our life will take us one step further away away from our natural environment and into a more alienated world.
The children of the future might have no idea as to what a real dog or a real cat looks like, and they might not even perceive the concept of different species. Humanity will not stay the same, and it might not necessarily be for the better.
In conclusion In a world where technology seems to take over every aspect of our our life, it's just a matter of time before we adopt AI robots aspets. It won't happen tomorrow - the models of robotic pets that are currently available at the market are still very basic and clumsy, but it won't take long before a new generation of life-like robotic pets enters our life.
There is a good change that some people will still have a dog or a cat as their pet, but there will be a general trend of moving toward robotic pets with all of their benefits, and having a real animal in your home will be considered exotic and a bit weird - just like having a tarantula as a pet today. One thing is for sure - the question "are you a dog person or a cat person?" will definitely seem weird in the future.