Development of Childcare Support Robot

Abstract

In order to reduce the childcare burden, we have been developing a childcare support robot. The robot reduces the burden by attracting child's attention when parents are busy. Also, in favor of reducing the psychological resistance to the robot, it is equipped with the function to transmit feelings through emotional expression. As a result, it could attract the interest of the infant during some time and transmit feelings at a certain of extent precision. In this paper, the structure of the robot and evaluate results of the function of emotional expression and the effect of childcare support are described.