Abstract. Robot assisted therapy has been applied in care for older adults who suffer from dementia for over ten years. Strong effects like improved interaction and signs of a higher sense of wellbeing have been reported. Still it is unclear which features are needed and which robotic pets would are suitable for this therapy. In this explorative research we interviewed 36 professional caregivers, both experienced and inexperienced in relationship to RAT and compiled a list of requirements. Next, we used this list to compare commercially available robotic pets. We found that many pet robots are usable, although seal robot Paro meets the requirements best, being superior on sustainability, realistic movements and interactivity. Finally, a test with alternative pets showed that different subjects were attracted to different pets and a subsequential questionnaire revealed that some caregivers were not only willing to try alternatives for Paro, but also suggesting that alternative pets could in some cases be more suitable.
Abstract-This paper presents a study on measuring (1) how children experience a pet robot, (2) how they play with it and (3) how children's perceptions on and interaction with pet robots are interrelated. The study features different types of subjective and objective techniques to assess the degree of perceived social entity from self-reports (i.e. questionnaires) and observed behavior. Three short questionnaires and an ad hoc code scheme of 15 low-level micro-behaviors were developed. 28 scholars aged 8 to 12 were observed at school during a play period with a Pleo robot and asked to answer the questionnaires. We found that the different questionnaire based methods were in line each other. Therefore, anyone of them can be used to measure the experience of a social entity. Play analyses showed that the two most prevalent behaviors were clearly social: petting the robot and showing it objects to engage in interaction. Moreover, children spent on average less than one per cent of the session time treating the robot as an artifact. However, significant covariation between the experience of a social entity and observed behavior could not be established.
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