Bio-inspired therapeutic pet robots: Review and future direction

Abstract

This paper presents an extensive review of "bio-inspired therapeutic pet robots", an emerging class of social robots deployed for therapeutic scenarios with a wide range of human stakeholders from elderly to autistic children. We begin by covering prominent literature that studies the roles and benefits of biological pets in therapeutic situations. We then present an overview on biologically inspired therapeutic pet robots. Finally, we discuss the needs and future potential for a parrot inspired robot and related research challenges.