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Article published In:
Interaction Studies
Vol. 15:2 (2014) ► pp.143–172

Social behaviours in dog-owner interactions can serve as a model for designing social robots

| MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
| MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Budapest, Hungary Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
It is essential for social robots to fit in the human society. In order to facilitate this process we propose to use the family dog’s social behaviour shown towards humans as an inspiration. In this study we explored dogs’ low level social monitoring in dog-human interactions and extracted individually consistent and context dependent behaviours in simple everyday social scenarios. We found that proximity seeking and tail wagging were most individually distinctive in dogs, while activity, orientation towards the owner, and exploration were dependent on the context and/or the activity of the owner. The functional analogues of these dog behaviours can be implemented in social robots of different embodiments in order to make them acceptable and more believable for humans. Keywords: dog-owner interaction; social robotics; low-level social monitoring; greeting behaviour; individually distinctive behaviours
Published online: 20 August 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.15.2.01far
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