Man’s New Best Friend? Strengthening Human-Robot Dog Bonding by Enhancing the Doglikeness of Sony’s Aibo

Commercial robotic dogs, such as Sony’s Aibo, have recently been reimagined. Our goal with this research was to examine factors that influence human-robot dog bonding. We created a 2x2 between-subjects experiment, by framing the Aibo as a puppy or robot, and by adding fur to the Aibo or not. We hypothesized that bonding would be stronger when the robotic dog was framed to participants as a puppy rather than a robot, and it would be stronger when the robotic dog was dressed in a fur suit. Results showed that participants were less positive toward Aibo when framed as a puppy compared to when Aibo was framed as a robot. Adding fur had a positive effect: Aibo was considered less scary compared to having no fur. In addition, behavioral interaction results showed that asking the Aibo to “come here” was the most popular command with respect to the number of completed actions, failures, and social behavior, and the time spent. Our approach could inform design in a way that integrates dogs into the work force to help people relieve boredom, stress, and help them carry out their jobs more effectively and cost efficiently.