There's a news report floating around about a adorable little robot dog. (See it at CBSMiami: Robot Therapy Dogs Designed To Help Patients Who Can’t Care For Real Pets).
The robot dog doesn't walk, but it reacts the way we expect good pets to react when petted. Very cute. The market will be nursing home patients and others who can't physically care for a pet. And it certainly seems like a good idea. This one is currently not on the market, and the projected price of $450 seems a bit high, especially since Amazon already has a similar one for $119.99.
Meanwhile, as therapy pets, robots might be useful for nursing home residents. However, Hal Herzog summarized research results comparing real dogs and robots as of 2016 in Therapy Dogs or Robots for Nursing Home Residents? The conclusion was that any benefit from the therapy animal or the robot only lasted a few weeks. Maybe the trick is to use them intermittently, not as constant companions.
In any event, the concept of a pet that doesn't eat, crap, get sick, or die is very appealing.
------
2:52 PM 4/28/2019
Comments