Bio-inspired therapeutic pet robots: Review and future direction

Abstract

This paper presents an extensive review of "bioinspired therapeutic pet robots", an emerging class of social robots deployed for therapeutic scenarios with a wide range of human stakeholders from elderly to autistic children. We begin by covering prominent literature that studies the roles and benefits of biological pets in therapeutic situations. We then present an overview on biologically inspired therapeutic pet robots. Finally, we discuss the needs and future potential for a parrot inspired robot and related research challenges.

"I just let him cry...

“…The proposed design has thus centred around the notion of a 'worried pet' -a 'lost' creature, who is often anxious and can be soothed by calm, stroking movements. This particular choice of narrative was aimed at creating a sense of relationship between the child and the toy, drawing on the interactivity and interdependence of the 'creature': we hypothesised that framing the creature in need of assistance would draw on the psychological eects of calming down by soothing 'someone else' (cf., [11,15]); and the in-the-moment soothing eects of doing so might result in a shift in the children's mindset around emotion regulation over time (cf., [40,120] for the importance of emotion mindsets). From a more user-centred view, the selection of a plush animal (as described below) seemed to t-and graft onto-the existing patterns of object-facilitated self-regulation that children described.…”

“…There are however also clear limitations in the probe design as well as the length of deployment, with the ndings highlighting many of the current gaps that would need to be resolved as part of extending the current technology probe prototype into the envisioned prevention intervention: In spite of the positive preliminary data, it is not clear if the existing prototype would lead to developing new emotion regulation skills for children that would persist after the toy is being taken away; or 'just' serve as crutch that has positive eects while it is around (similarly to, e.g., eects of the Paro robotic seal [11,15,21,89,151]). Specically, more research is needed to understand how similar in-the-moment interactions can be extended to include more explicit intervention, including particular skills and competencies; as well as how much of the patterns we observed are due to novelty eects.…”

Sociopsychological and physiological effects of a robot-assisted therapy for children with autism

“…They include dogs, cats, canines, pink dolphins, guinea pigs, rabbits, reptile, and parrots. [27][28][29][30][31][32] After dogs, cats, and fish, parrots are thought to be the most common household pet. 32 Parrots have been used in therapeutic settings and have provided remarkable benefits to human society.…”

“…[27][28][29][30][31][32] After dogs, cats, and fish, parrots are thought to be the most common household pet. 32 Parrots have been used in therapeutic settings and have provided remarkable benefits to human society. Parrots are good at mimicking the human voice and other sounds.…”

“…39 It is also reported that the parrots are helpful in therapeutic settings with psychiatric patients. 32 The distinct feature of talking ability in parrots is very relevant and helpful in improving learning and social interaction abilities of children with autism. Parrots have been used in elderly care and autism therapy earlier.…”