The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is very active in the development of robots whose function relies on efficient communication and interaction with people. Published in 2003, this comprehensive study looks at the history, operation, and classification of a large sampling of socially interactive robots from both industry and academia. The authors define and discuss several...

Pet owners traditionally develop an emotional bond with their pets. However, in this unusual study from the University of Washington, researchers attempted to ascertain whether similar feelings can be evoked from Sony's robotic dog AIBO. The study's methodology involved analyzing "people's conceptions of AIBO through their spontaneous postings that occurred in 3 well-established online AIBO...