Could Dogs Help Design Robots?

Man's best friend may play an important role in helping design social robots.

According to lead study author Gabriella Lakatos of the Hungarian Academy of Science and Eötvös Loránd University, she discovered that this cuddly canine reacts sociably to robots that behave in a similar fashion.  

For the study, researchers tested the reaction of 41 dogs that were divided into two groups based on the nature of human-robot interaction:  'asocial' or 'social.' One set of dogs in the 'asocial group' that was first observed via interaction between two humans and then observed as an 'asocial' interaction between the owner and the robot. The remaining dogs in the group participated to the interactions via reverse order.

The 'social group' of dogs were watched via an interaction between the owner and the human experimenter that followed the 'social' interaction between the owner and the robot. The study notes that the remaining dogs in the group also participated via interactions in reverse order that were followed by sessions of either the human experimenter or when the robot pointed out in a location to find hidden food in both the 'asocial' and 'social' groups.

The researchers used a customized human-sized PeopleBot with customized arms and four-fingered hands that made specific gestures towards the animals. However, the robot did not look like a human. 

The study authors note that the level of sociality demonstrated by the robot was enough to show the same amount of social behavioral reactions from dogs that they might normally display to a close human owner. In fact, background information from the study demonstrates that some dogs even spent time gazing at the robot when it behaved socially. The results also showed that dogs were better at finding hidden food when a social robot pointed it out to them.

"Roboticists who design interactive robots should look into the sociality and behavior of their designs, even if they do not embody human-like characteristics," Lakatos said, via a press release.

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Animal Cognition.