The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles — it delivers smart mobility services. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.
Robots can attend work for us, fight in our wars, teach our children and beat us at Jeopardy!, but can they learn to love us? Even as robot tech gets more advanced, we see those advancements in terms of processing power and speed. Programming a robot to feel or, more appropriately, to emulate life, presents a whole new set of challenges.
In a recent New Yorker article, Adam Gopnik wrote about the “minds” of robots and their fundamental limits. Robots routinely beat humans in computational challenges, but they still have trouble beating humans at poker, where winning is as much about playing the mind of your opponent as it is about calculating card probabilities.
Getting a robot to “feel” is still a long way off, however, there are some robots that can already approximate emotions like fear, happiness and excitement based on stimuli. In fact, these robots are some of the cutest, cuddliest ones you can find.
There is a whole market of “pet substitutes” that have developed as the underlying technology becomes both more stable and available. Pet robots are, for the most part, unconcerned with beating us at Jeopardy! However, they are tackling the most difficult challenge: human interaction and affection. When is a robot a pet? And are they the future of service animals like seeing-eye dogs? Read on for our take.
Digital Kennel
It’s tough to nail down what is actually available on the market, and we tried to dig up some options that you could purchase without taking out a loan. There are all kinds of pet robots of varying complexity, from the toy-like ZhuZhu Puppies to the decidedly un-cuddly, multi-million dollar “BigDog,” picked up by the U.S. Military.
The problem is packing a robo-pet with enough hardware that it can navigate its surroundings and interact with its owner while also being adorable. Sony’s Aibo was a step in the right direction, but production was discontinued in 2006.
Right now, there are two notable pets designed to act like, well, “pets” — so far as their ability to react and respond to their owners is concerned. PARO is a pet seal billed as a “therapeutic robot.” Designed by Japanese company AIST, PARO was meant to help patients in recovery and comes with enough sensors to recognize and react to cues. All of those mechanics are buried deep under a soft, furry skin that makes PARO comfortable to hold. Basing the robot on a seal was a smart choice. Their large eyes make them instantly adorable, but more importantly, it’s easier to program and register facial expressions. As well, their lack of legs means AIST didn’t have to bother with locomotion, freeing engineers to work on the robot’s other features.
PLEO, designed by Innvo Labs, is a more recreational robot intended for home use. The dinosaur behaves much like a real pet would, programmed to be curious, investigate objects, make noise and respond to touch and sight. When you touch it, it will lean into your hand and coo. Much like a real pet, each PLEO goes through phases of growth: Hatchling, Infant and Juvenile. Each corresponds to a set of behaviors that mimic a real animal’s natural development. A hatchling has difficulty walking and requires constant care. After about a day, PLEO becomes an infant, actively scouting its surroundings, and so on.
Like its seal counterpart, PLEO features an oversized head compared to the rest of its body. This was both to accommodate its sensors but also to give it a cuter appearance and larger, expressive eyes. Individual PLEOs can be taught unique voice commands for a set of actions and develop relatively unique character traits. Still, despite their features, these robots are still responding to a fixed set of programs and inputs. Neither are wholly autonomous nor profess to be.
Why a Robot?
The real question then becomes: If you want a pet so badly, why buy a robot? Robot pets, especially ones that seem to spontaneously interact with their owner, offer niche advantages. This is especially the case with special needs owners that might not be able to own a real pet.
These robots are good alternatives, for example, for older people who may not have the wherewithal to walk, feed, and play with, and care for a dog. Robotic pets also don’t defecate or leave other bodily messes the way that biological pets do. It’s also a substitute for people who are allergic to animals but wish to have a pet.
Therapy
Perhaps the most exciting growth area for these pets is in therapy and rehab. Service animals have a variety of uses. Seeing-eye dogs guide the visually impaired, and companion dogs assist people with neural disorders like autism. Animals can also be used with patients recovering from physical or emotional trauma. “People stop looking at it as a robot or a toy or whatever,” said Derek Dotson, COO of Innvo Labs, makers of PLEO. “As human beings, it’s terrifying how quick we do that, but humans do that all the time. We name our cars, not because they get us from point to point, but because they have meaning in our lives.”
It’s that emotional connection that makes these robots important as service animal alternatives. It will also cut down on the tremendous costs associated with training, breeding, and keeping biological animals. Furthermore, they are safer than real animals which can misbehave or even turn violent. “[A robot] is something they touch, it responds to them, and it’s completely safe for [special needs children],” Dotson said. “If you pull a dog’s tail, it can snap at you, but you can swing PLEO around by its neck and be fine.” PLEOs are designed to take punishment, and are made out of the same base-rubber as are used for pacifiers. It’s clean, cute, completely harmless, and will never stop acting like it likes you. Those are pretty good qualities for a service animal.
The problem is that the robots just aren’t quite there yet. Dotson admitted that part of the reason PLEO is a dinosaur is because we just can’t build something as good as a real animal. “We can never do it as good as nature, but you can’t have a dinosaur,” Dotson explained. Even in its current state, PLEO has been a challenge. “At this point in time, PLEO is basically an impossible product: It costs too much to develop, it costs too much to sell, and we’re selling it too cheap.” The robot currently sells for $ 469 — an expensive toy.
Still, Dotson takes the long-view. He believes in 10 years the there will be demand for more intelligent, feature-heavy toys. “The niche will be for more interactive, sophisticated things,” he said.
Service Animals
Service animals have played a huge role in Adrienne Levesque’s life. Levesque, a board member of the National Autism Association, has a 13-year-old son who struggled with autism until they got a black lab called Woody. “We got our service dog for our son when he was 6 years old,” Levesque said. “At the time he had, as many kids with autism do, a lot of issues with communication; a lot of sensory processing problems; a lot of difficulties going into places that we wouldn’t think twice about — grocery stories, Target. Normal, every-day activities.”
Getting the dog allowed her son to feel more confident and start to open up emotionally to people. His dog gave him comfort as well as gave him something he was comfortable talking about. Levesque said her son is making great progress, and owes much of it to their pet. “We’ve done a lot of different treatments with [my son]. I don’t know if we’d be close to where we are without Woody. He was the thing that enabled [my son] to not only be in a new place but to handle it, and handle it well.”
The unfortunate truth is that humans outlive animals, and Levesque has tried to prepare her son and herself for when Woody eventually dies. It’s a reality that could be avoided if robotic pets continue to improve. Robots don’t die. Both PARO and PLEO can be perpetually recharged. Robots will undoubtedly be better at mechanical tasks like fetching, opening doors, or guiding their owners. The real unknown is whether people can truly bond with a robot the way they can with a biological animal.
What do you think? Will robots ever get to the point where they could substitute for real pets? What do you make of using robots as service “animals?” Let us know in the comments below.
Series Supported by BMW i
The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles; it delivers smart mobility services within and beyond the car. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.
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Image courtesy of Flickr, Jarod Carruthers, pmarkham