Examples
There are several companion robot prototypes and these include Paro, CompanionAble, and EmotiRob, among others.Paro
Paro is a pet-type robot system developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). The robot, which looked like a small seal, was designed for the care and support of old individuals especially those living on their own. Experiments showed that Paro facilitated elderly residents to communicate with each other, which led to psychological improvements.CompanionAble
This robot is classified as an FP 7 EU project and is built to "cooperate with Ambient Assistive Living environment". The autonomous device, which is also built to support the elderly, helps its owner interact withEmotiRob
EmotiRob is a robot being developed by a French team to engage fragile children emotionally. It has cognitive capabilities, which are further extended so that the robot can have a natural linguistic interaction with its owner through the DRAGON speech-recognition software developed by a company called NUANCE. Such interaction is expected to facilitate a child's cognitive development and develop new learning patterns.References
Robotics Interpersonal relationships {{society-stub