Can a dog tell the difference? dogs encounter AIBO, an animal-like robot in two social situations

Abstract

The use of autonomous animal-like robots can offer new possibilities for studying social recognition ability in animals. We report on an experiment where 24 adult dogs and 16 puppies were studied in a spontaneous and in a competitive situation with AIBO, a four-legged autonomous robot. A puppy and a remote controlled car were used as controls.