Investigation on people living with Paro at home

Abstract

We conducted a questionnaire survey for owners of Paro, using the questionnaires sent with Paro when they purchased it. They answered the questionnaires voluntarily; therefore, the results may reflect the positive tendency of respondents who like Paro or like to play with Paro. In this study, the owners' attributes and interaction with Paro are analyzed for indications of robot design for human-robot interaction intended for home use. The results showed that about 70% of the respondents were female and over 60 years old, and most of them cannot keep pets because they worry about the pet's death and find pet care difficult. The pet type robots for the elderly may, therefore, need to be designed for easy care. The sense of touch and word recognition are also important functions for interactive pet type robot design, along with its facial expressions and physical reactions to express emotions. Furthermore, taking into account of improvements of the robot, the weight of Paro and the battery needs to be customized. It is expected that these results will help in designing pet type robots.