Design and Development of Companion Robot - AIKO v1.0

This paper presents companion robots - AIKO v1.0, a novel and interactive companion robot for human-robot interaction targeted towards users with need for psychological assistance. Primary contributions of this work are (i) Novel approach exploiting combination of pseudo-expressions, emotion detection and voice response; (ii) Unique guinea pig-like bioinspired shape and dimension. The goal is to provide a solution for addressing the lack of psychological assistance with the help of AIKO and to complement research on study of relationship between the psycho-physiological parameters. Emotion detection, motion detection, mode of locomotion, face detection, expression and other features are discussed. Additionally, future advancements and potential application are mentioned.