Experimental study on interaction between a rat and a rat-robot based on animal psychology - analysis of basic factors necessary for a symbiosis between the rat and the robot

We clarify the basic factors necessary for a symbiotic relationship between humans and robots. However, evaluating interaction between humans and robots is difficult due to a number of uncertain factors in human communication. Therefore, less sophisticated creatures, rats, were first selected, and we conducted interaction experiments between rats and robots. In our previous studies, we could not conduct these experiments for over 2 hours. We then developed a new experimental system to conduct the experiments without time restrictions. Using this system, we conducted two interaction experiments. In one experiment, the robot, meeting a rat´s request, could live symbiotically with the rat. In the other experiment, the robot, behaving sequentially without having met the rat, could control the rat. This paper investigates the factors for a symbiotic relationship between a rat and a robot by comparing the two experiments.