Agency in Canine-Robot Interaction: Do Dogs (Canis Familiaris) Understand Humanoid Robots Pointing Behavior?

Abstract

We conducted a study on whether dogs (Canis familiaris) perceive robots as agents, using the classic pointing paradigm in animal cognition research. While few studies to date have explored the pointing paradigm with robots, an initial study did not suggest dogs understood non-humanoid robot pointing. In this study, we tested 20 dogs with the humanoid robot Nao. Our results did not suggest that dogs understand humanoid robot pointing. We are currently working on revising the design and will conduct more experiments.