Interaction with a zoomorphic robot that exhibits canid mechanisms of behaviour

Despite parallels between the cooperative use of domestic dogs in human society today, the predicted similar deployment of robots in the future, and the plethora of superficially dog-like robotic entertainment devices, very little effort has been directed at exploiting any understanding of social cognition between dogs and humans when designing interactive robotic systems. This paper describes an experiment in which we gave interactive robots zoomorphic appearances and dog-like behavioural properties. We analysed human reactions to robots exhibiting differing levels of zoomorphism and dog-like behaviour during an interaction task; we were particularly interested to determine whether behaviour and/or appearance that mimicked that of dogs facilitated increased satisfaction in robot performance and a willingness to persevere with a robot that made mistakes. Our findings show that neither the appearance or behaviour of a robot had an impact on the participants' rating of robot performance whilst there was also no significant difference in the self-reported categories of frustration, excitement and desire to persist with an interaction. However, our findings suggest that differences in individual preferences are revealed when people are asked to interact with robots that exhibit dog-like behaviours and other zoomorphic characteristics and that further research is required in order to better understand these differences. ©2008 IEEE