Pet Robot Research Articles

The Role of Animal Assisted Therapy in the Rehabilitation of Mental Health Disorders: A Systematic Literature Review

Mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and schizophrenia significantly reduce the daily functioning and quality of life of individuals. Traditional treatments often fall short, thus opening interest in complementary therapies like animal assisted therapy (AAT) which encourages the human-animal bond and gives emotional and psychological support. This review evaluated the efficacy of AAT in treating mental health disorders, and understanding its mechanisms and benefits. A comprehensive literature review was conducted (using databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate) focused on peer-reviewed articles, systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in the last 2 decades. Studies indicated that AAT improved mental health outcomes for people with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and schizophrenia. Interaction with therapy animals reduced cortisol levels, increased oxytocin, lowered blood pressure, and increased social engagement and emotional regulation. Benefits included reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and improved social functioning and quality of life. AAT offered a complementary treatment for mental health disorders, providing emotional comfort, improving mood, and serving as a nonpharmacological option for individuals. However, challenges such as individual preferences, allergies, ethical concerns for therapy animals, and logistical issues must be addressed. Future research should focus on the long-term effects and mechanisms involved to optimize the application of AAT in the clinical setting, and alternatives like robotic companion pets could also be explored.

The Social Identity of the Robot Pet: A multi-dimensional perspective

With the invention and application of artificial intelligence products into modern society, robot pets have become one of the important products. At present, along with the gradual integration of robot pets into human life and becoming people’s intimate companions, more and more people begin to pay attention to the social identity of robot pets. In order to clarify the social identity of robotic pets in modern society, this study used questionnaires and interviews to collect the acceptance attitudes and perspectives of residents from the Yangtze River Delta region toward robotic pets as companions. It is found that there is diversity in public acceptance of robotic pets, and that health, emotional needs, and the function of the robots are important factors influencing people’s choice of robotic pets. Regarding the social status of robotic pets, some people believe that robotic pets should be regarded as an integral part of society. While others believe they lack socio-emotional attributes and should not have a social identity. In the future, pet robots will move toward personalization, multifunctionality, or cross-industry cooperation, where their social identity is expected to be strengthened. In conclusion, this study organizes the social cognition of robotic pets, gives an empirical basis for the study of the social identity of robotic pets, and provides guidance for the future direction of AI products.

Use of Socially Assistive Robots to Improve Outcomes Among Hospitalized Older Adults With Dementia: A Pilot Randomized Trial.

To examine the use of the PARO robotic pet seal for hospitalized older adults with dementia and compare the effects of PARO use with visits by a human on various outcomes, including physical restraint use, psychotropic medications, bedside sitters, and delirium. Complete data for 38 participants were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and chi-square tests. Participants interacting with PARO spent less time in their interactions; however, they received fewer psychotropic medications and had fewer instances of delirium than those who interacted with human visitors only. Aspects of hospitalization may limit the time an older adult can sustain attention or be free from interruption; however, short, repeated visits with PARO may affect the development of delirium and decrease use of medications to alter behavior in the hospital setting. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 50(10), 11-16.].

Analysis of the Pet Companion Robot Market

Pet robot is a kind of intelligent device with artificial intelligence and mechanical technology. These robots provide a solution to the challenges of balancing work responsibilities and caring for pets, while also enhancing the interaction between owners and pets to ensure the health of pets. The pet robot market is a new technology market, through the in-depth study of the pet robot market, it can fill the research gap in this field and provide new research opportunities for the academic circle. Through the research methods of questionnaire survey and literature review, we compared the global market strategies of large, small and medium-sized technology pet robot companies, combined with the quantitative literature review and questionnaire quantitative analysis, and drew the conclusion that the pet robot market has great potential, but the entry barrier is high, and the differentiation strategy is needed.

Analysis of the Pet Companion Robot Market

Pet robot is a kind of intelligent device with artificial intelligence and mechanical technology. These robots provide a solution to the challenges of balancing work responsibilities and caring for pets, while also enhancing the interaction between owners and pets to ensure the health of pets. The pet robot market is a new technology market, through the in-depth study of the pet robot market, it can fill the research gap in this field and provide new research opportunities for the academic circle. Through the research methods of questionnaire survey and literature review, we compared the global market strategies of large, small and medium-sized technology pet robot companies, combined with the quantitative literature review and questionnaire quantitative analysis, and drew the conclusion that the pet robot market has great potential, but the entry barrier is high, and the differentiation strategy is needed.

Social Determinants of Health for Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias

Dementia is the 7th leading cause of death in the United States and leads to significant distress, disability, and economic burden. Social determinants of health (SDoH) are the nonbiological factors that impact health outcomes, functioning, and quality of life. Cumulative effects of SDoH across a lifespan can affect the risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). While there is significant research on the biological factors of ADRD, the SDoH of ADRD are not well characterized. In this article, we review the SDoH that contribute to ADRD. Economic instability, poor education access and quality, poor health care access, unsafe neighborhoods, environmental pollution, lack of social engagement, and racial discrimination can increase the risk of ADRD. Prevention and intervention strategies to combat social isolation include technology-based interventions such as pet robots and dementia-friendly communities. [ Psychiatr Ann . 2024;54(7):e216–e222.]

Robotic Pet Therapy in the Intensive Care Unit.

Robotic pet therapy could aid in the nonpharmacologic treatment of pain, agitation, delirium, immobility, and sleep disruption (PADIS) in the intensive care unit (ICU), similar to traditional pet therapy. The North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System implemented a robotic pet therapy program for patients requiring ICU care. Details of this program are described in this article, including evaluating its impact on PADIS management. Robotic pet therapy can be successfully implemented in the ICU and could be a simple, safe, and beneficial nonpharmacologic intervention for PADIS.

The Woman with the Dog: Relationships between Pet Robots and Humans in a Danish Nursing Home for People with Dementia

In this article, we explore how pet robots come into being in a Danish nursing home for people with dementia, based on five months of ethnographic fieldwork. We argue that the researcher and the robot become an assembled temporary figure in the nursing home: the woman with the dog. We show how pet robots are characterized by their fluidity and can go from being mechanical robots to living animals in a matter of seconds during interactions with nursing home residents. The social robots are fragile technologies that disappear and cease to be used if people in the nursing home stop caring for them. Through relationships, the pet robots come into being together with other actors in the nursing home – a process that requires tinkering (Mol, Moser, and Pols 2010) and flexibility from those working with the robots. We argue that the woman with the dog can develop caring relations with the residents, but although there are hopes that pet robots are one of the technologies that can save a welfare state and care system under pressure, this is not something that can be done by the pet robots alone. Rather, the robots need care and tinkering to become embedded in the nursing home.

Digital Twins of Pet Robots to Prolong Interdependent Relationships and Effects on Student Learning Performance

Digital Twins of Pet Robots to Prolong Interdependent Relationships and Effects on Student Learning Performance

THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF COMPANION ROBOTIC PETS ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER WOMEN

Abstract This project explores whether companion robotic pets improve mental well-being of community-dwelling older women with depression. Depression is a major mental health issue disproportionately impacting women due to lifelong experiences of sexism and limitations in education and employment. Aging exacerbates an already undervalued status, and feelings of powerlessness increase. Women thus experience double jeopardy from discrimination on both gender and age (Hooyman et al., 2017). This project will investigate the efficacy of companion robotic pets and will recommend plans to the local Office for Aging (OFA). Recruitment was done in collaboration with the local OFA, with mail-survey data collected from community-dwelling women over the age of 65. 38 participants were provided with a robotic pet after an initial screening. Following a one-group pretest posttest design, data from 31 participants were used to determine the impact of a robotic pet intervention on older women’s quality of life. Paired samples t-tests were used to compare means of the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), 10-item Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS), 6-item De Jong Loneliness Scale, and one physical health status question completed by 30 women. There was a significant average difference between before- and after-companion pet scores for depression (t29 = 6.597, p < 0.001), anxiety (t29 = 6.728, p < 0.001), loneliness (t29 = 6.462, p < 0.001) and physical health (t29 = - 3.496, p = 0.002). Results confirmed companion robotic pets improve mental health in older women with depression and anxiety. Moreover, they are helpful in improving loneliness and physical health.

Generative replay for multi-class modeling of human activities via sensor data from in-home robotic companion pets

Generative replay for multi-class modeling of human activities via sensor data from in-home robotic companion pets

Usability and Acceptability of Social Robot Pets Among Community-Dwelling Veterans Living With Dementia and Their Caregivers.

Social robot pets promote engagement and psychosocial well-being among older adults, yet little is known about their use among community-dwelling Veterans living with dementia. This programmatic evaluation used a within subjects, pre-post design to examine the usability (frequency of use, frequency of caregiver reminders) and acceptability (benefit, satisfaction) of social robot pets among Veterans with dementia (N = 20). An intervention usability and acceptability tool was completed by telephone with family caregivers 3 months after delivery of the pet to the home. Overall, 80% of Veterans used the pet often or daily, while 7 caregivers provided reminders for the Veteran to use the pet. Caregivers indicated that Veterans experienced benefit with the pet, as well themselves. Regarding satisfaction, 89% reported they would recommend a social robot pet to others. Research is needed to expand generalizability, evaluate effects on outcomes, and enhance implementation of social robot pets among Veteran families with dementia.

Cute or creepy, that is the question of liveness: can artificial actors perform live?

This paper examines the liveness of the performative acts of technologically simulated or synthesized agents in interaction with humans. It questions the ability of artificial performers to construct a sense of live presence on stage and in other daily performative scenarios and evaluates our perception of liveness in those contexts. In this critical and comparative analysis, I study the live quality of Hatsune Miku’s live musical performances – a computer-generated cyber celebrity with a three-dimensional holographic body and an artificially synthesized singing voice – and the stimulating interactions of PARO, the seal – an adorable therapeutic cuddle-robot utilized as an emotional companion in nursing homes and hospitals. Using performance and media theories, I examine the audience/users’ affective responses and engagement quality with the holographic singer and the robotic pet, directly leading to the acceptance or rejection of the claim to the liveness of these techno-actors. This research also evaluates the impact of the application of cuteness (or kawaii) in designing non-human agents versus the emergence of creepiness in interactions with their incorporeal bodies on our emotive response. The objective is to study the difference between the liveness and aliveness of non-human, non-living performing agents and the impact of evoking the sense of “cute” versus “creepy” on warping the Uncanny Valley Curve.

Design of Single Legged Hopper Robot in Gazebo

Abstract: Robotics is one of the core areas where the bioinspiration is frequently used to design various engineered morphologies to develop novel behavioral controllers comparable to human being and animals. Research on legged robots has been going on for over a century. The reason behind such sustained interest in legged robots is due to the fact that most of the earth’s land surface is inaccessible to wheeled or tracked systems. Legged animals can, however, be found everywhere. Thus, mankind has been fascinated with the idea of a mobile legged robot that can handle difficult terrain and be useful in the fields of transportation, forestry, agriculture, fire, fighting, hazardous areas, defense (carrying weapons to soldiers, de-mining), police purposes, assistive devices for walking, entertainment (toy production), robotic pets, and ocean and space exploration. Our project is based on one such example, single legged hopper robot a legged locomotive inspired by the jumping mechanism of click beetles. It aims to create a single legged hopper robot in Gazebo. A simulation tool that offers the ability to accurately, and efficiently, simulate populations of robots in complex indoor and outdoor environments. The Robot Operating System (ROS) works best in the LINUX OS, is the software of version Melodic + Gazebo 9, is utilized in the project.

Your phrases matter: Third waves in research approaches and new contexts for formulaic language.

This study reports on new contexts in which formulaic language has been used in the years since 2013 when the last synthesis was carried out. The background presents an old but still useful definition and lists themes under which research was arranged in 2013 and which continue to be used. This study has a particular emphasis on the relevance of formulaic language to people living with dementia. Section 3, identifying new directions, reviews new 'third waves' of research priorities in several fields in which formulaic sequences play a major role, including sociolinguistic variation, corpus-based and corpus-driven analyses, pragmatics, human-computer interaction, and psycholinguistics, all of which are relevant to speech-language therapists. Section 4, outreach and expansions, illustrates new contributions from cognitively impaired person-to-person exchanges in online environments, recent examinations of infant- and pet-directed speech incorporating formulaic language, and online graphic explorations such as emojis. Section 5 focuses on growth of research in theoretical and clinical applications by Van Lancker Sidtis, as illustrated by references to her recent work. The paper's main contribution is to summarize the work on formulaic language over the last 10 years, to indicate its continued importance and relevance in ordinary conversation, and especially in allowing people living with dementia to continue to interact with others. The paper concludes by suggesting that more focus be placed on the analysis of formulaic language with an emphasis on its relevance for speech-language therapists and other clinicians. What is already known on the subject Research has been growing since the late 1970s and early 1980s on non-propositional language (as opposed at that time to the Chomskyan paradigm) and especially on lexical bundles, idioms, second language acquisition and multiword expressions. Studies beginning with Hughlings Jackson (1874) have been annotated through early 2012 (Wray, 2013). What this study adds This study examines 'third waves' in pragmatics, sociolinguistics and areas of neurology and speech perception contributing to what Van Lancker Sidtis (2021) calls the third wave of acceptance of the range and depth of formulaic sequences in ordinary or familiar language. What are the clinical implications of this work? Conversations with pet robots or web-based composition with emojis are but two of the developing areas built on formulaic sequences currently being used for communication interventions with persons living with dementia or other major neurocognitive disorder. Overviews of major contributions in theory and social contexts by Wray (2020, 2021) and theoretical and cognitive applications by Van Lancker Sidtis (2021) detail new areas for the study of formulaic sequences and their contributions to a range of neurocognitive disorders.

Determinants of implementation: Embedding pet robots in nursing homes for dementia care

AbstractBackgroundPet robots are a type of social robots that have been used to benefit the psychosocial health of people living with dementia, particularly in nursing home settings. Despite the body of literature that have been conducted to evaluate their impacts, research to understand how pet robots can be translated from research into real‐world practice have been largely overlooked. This study seeks to address this knowledge gap by exploring the multilevel barriers and facilitators to implementing two pet robots for dementia care in nursing homes.MethodsWe conducted a descriptive qualitative study, conceptualised and guided using the Consolidated Framework of Implementation Research (CFIR), which consists of 39 constructs within five domains salient to implementation. Maximum variation sampling was used to identify and recruit healthcare professionals and organisational leaders from nursing homes. Individual, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with each participants face‐to‐face or over Zoom. Data was transcribed and analysed using Framework Analysis, supported by the NVivo12 qualitative data management software.ResultsA total of 22 participants from eight nursing homes were included in this study, of which 9 had seen or used a pet robot with residents with dementia. Barriers and facilitators were mapped to constructs from all five CFIR domains: 1) intervention characteristics, 2) outer setting, 3) inner setting, 4) characteristics of individuals and 5) process. Facilitators include the realisticness and familiarity of pet robots, identification of residents’ needs that can be met (or were met) using a pet robot, compatibility with prevailing regulatory guidelines and organisational care process, intrinsic desires to improve residents’ quality of life, and buy‐in from stakeholders. Barriers include a lack of customisability of pet robots to suit residents’ abilities and preferences, doubts about long‐term use, prohibitive costs, lack of external funding, lack of resources and knowledge, infection prevention mandates, and conflicting views on the anthropomorphisation of pet robots.DiscussionOverall, this study highlights an incongruence between the characteristics of pet robots, organisational considerations (such as available resources), and external contextual factors. These findings have practical utility in informing the development of implementation strategies to guide the translation of pet robots from research into real‐world practice.

Codifying Wildness: Wild Behaviour for Improving Human-Robot Interaction

Animals, even when domesticated, maintain a series of innate characteristics that humans perceive as wild. Human responses to animal behavior vary with many factors such as historical time and culture. Even after their domestication, humans perceive animals’ distinctive behavior patterns that are considered as being wild, even in pets. It is common understanding that these wild patterns are linked to the specific animal species but also that there is a common characteristic to wild behavior in general. In this paper, we present our work on coding such a quality, exemplified in an application to robot pets. We consider that an application of wild character in the behavior of the pet robot can improve its realism and make the human/robot social interaction more captivating. To this aim, we have designed and implemented a behavioral architecture to reproduce well-known behavioral patterns of domestic cats that might be considered wild and applied it to a commercial pet robot that then was used to assess human reaction to its behavior. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach with experiments carried out with humans that found the robot cat “independent” and “unpredictable” to a significant degree, two distinctive features of the wild side of animals.

Discerning Affect From Touch and Gaze During Interaction With a Robot Pet

Practical affect recognition needs to be efficient and unobtrusive in interactive contexts. One approach to a robust real-time system is to sense and automatically integrate multiple nonverbal sources. We investigated how users' touch, and secondarily gaze, perform as affect-encoding modalities during physical interaction with a robot pet, in comparison to more-studied biometric channels. To elicit authentically experienced emotions, participants recounted two intense memories of opposing polarity in Stressed-Relaxed or Depressed-Excited conditions. We collected data (N=30) from a touch sensor embedded under robot fur (force magnitude and location), a robot-adjacent gaze tracker (location), and biometric sensors (skin conductance, blood volume pulse, respiration rate). Cross-validation of Random Forest classifiers achieved best-case accuracy for combined touch-with-gaze approaching that of biometric results: where training and test sets include adjacent temporal windows, subject-dependent prediction was 94% accurate. In contrast, subject-independent Leave-One-participant-Out predictions resulted in 30% accuracy (chance 25%). Performance was best where participant information was available in both training and test sets. Addressing computational robustness for dynamic, adaptive real-time interactions, we analyzed subsets of our multimodal feature set, varying sample rates and window sizes. We summarize design directions based on these parameters for this touch-based, affective, and hard, real-time robot interaction application.

Older adults in a Modern World

Editorial Older adults in a Modern WorldBy L.F. Carver, Editor-in-Chief Stereotypes that suggest older adults are resistant to technology may have had some accuracy in the 1980s but are now outdated and inaccurate. Technology has been evolving quickly over the past century, and older adults have been adapting to these changes just as quickly. Telephones went from a single wall mounted phone in the home to cordless handsets and cellphones, changes driven by the buying habits of people who are now older adults. The consumers who enthusiastically embraced home computers, then laptops and finally tablets are now middle aged or older adults.(Geron)technologies are those technologies that support aging adults – but these do not need to be limited to health-related devices. Older adults generally report feeling much younger inside than their chronological age and buy technology that supports them to engage in hobbies and activities that they did in their twenties and thirties. These technologies often mirror those chosen by their younger counterparts.Governments are recognizing the importance of AgeTech with investments in the development of these industries. For example, in late 2022/early 2023 the Canadian government announced a $47 million dollar investment (via the Strategic Innovation Fund) and the American National Institute on Aging (a2 Pilot Awards) unveiled $40 million for AgeTech over five years. Given the inaccuracies of traditional ageist stereotypes it is important to avoid surveillance and communal residential settings (e.g., long term care homes) as the focus for AgeTech, especially given most older adults are uninterested in living these facilities and technology that violates their privacy.Modern older adults are interested in technologies that enable them maintain independence, aging gracefully in place, in their own homes. However, they tend to reject technologies that impinge on privacy – especially those that involve 24/7 surveillance. Ambient assisted living, which generally involves cameras and pressure plates that record, and report, movement and activity are a favourite among caregivers and concerned family but are generally repudiated by older adults.Finally, older adults who refuse certain technologies are not ‘resistant’ to tech, they just don’t want technology to try to fool them or replace reality. If they enjoy travel, they want technology that allows them to continue to travel as long as possible, not virtual reality goggles. Older animal lovers don’t want a robot pet, they want technology to support them to continue to care for their non-human companions as long as possible.The most important thing for policy makers, technology companies and younger adults to remember is that older adults share many of the same consumer interests when it comes to technology as younger adults. In fact, instead of considering older adults as something different or ‘other’ than their younger counterparts, we need to remember that they are the same people as they were when they were younger, they just have more mileage.

The ethics of pet robots in dementia care settings: Care professionals' and organisational leaders' ethical intuitions.

Pet robots are gaining momentum as a technology-based intervention to support the psychosocial wellbeing of people with dementia. Current research suggests that they can reduce agitation, improve mood and social engagement. The implementation of pet robots in care for persons with dementia raises several ethical debates. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence to uncover care providers' ethical intuitions, defined as individuals' fundamental moral knowledge that are not underpinned by any specific propositions. Explore care professionals' and organisational leaders' ethical intuitions before and when implementing pet robots in nursing homes for routine dementia care. We undertook a secondary qualitative analysis of data generated from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 22 care professionals and organisational leaders from eight nursing homes in Ireland. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Ethical constructs derived from a comprehensive review of argument-based ethics literature were used to guide the deductive coding of concepts. An inductive approach was used to generate open codes not falling within the pre-existing concepts. Ethical intuitions for implementing pet robots manifested at three levels: an (1) individual-relational, (2) organisational and (3) societal level. At the individual-relational level, ethical intuitions involved supporting the autonomy of residents and care providers, using the robots to alleviate residents' social isolation, and the physical and psychosocial impacts associated with their use. Some care providers had differing sentiments about anthropomorphizing pet robots. At the organisational level, intuitions related to the use of pet robots to relieve care provision, changes to the organisational workflow, and varying extents of openness amongst care providers to use technological innovations. At the societal level, intuitions pertained conceptions of dementia care in nursing homes, and social justice relating to the affordability and availability of pet robots. Discrepancies between participants' ethical intuitions and existing philosophical arguments were uncovered. Care professionals and organisational leaders had different opinions on how pet robots are or should be implemented for residents with dementia. Future research should consider involving care practitioners, people with dementia, and their family members in the ethics dialogue to support the sustainable, ethical use of pet robots in practice.