短脚ニ足歩行ペットロボットの研究

（ヒトとのコミュニケーションを意識したペットロボットの設計）

抄録

Indications are, animal therapy can work effectively for the elderly with severe senile dementia, those showing little response to others due to poor communicative skills, and those with little emotion or purposeful behavior in the eye of observers. However, hospitals and nursing homes often have difficulty keeping a pet due to various problems, including allergy, infection, biting and scratching. Against this backdrop, demand is rising for a pet robot that requires no care and causes no allergy, infection, biting and scratching, and is aimed to please and comfort people and contribute to their welfare. With no pet robot so far designed exclusively for the elderly, it is becoming necessary to design a robot featuring skills to communicate with the elderly. This study conducted a questionnaire survey among the elderly, examined healing effects on them, and produced a prototype robot based on the results.