Implementation of owner distinction function for therapeutic pet robots

AbstractRapid progress in robotics has led to the widespread use of robots in many fields. A typical case is pet robots, based on animal pets such as dogs or cats. Animal pets are also known to have a therapeutic effect, and efforts to apply pet robots in animal‐assisted therapy have begun. We have investigated a method of owner recognition for pet robots, emphasizing their therapeutic effects. This paper proposes a real‐time owner recognition method intended for implementation in pet robots. Specifically, it provides a real‐time matching algorithm and a forgetting mechanism. In real‐time matching, matching and data acquisition are performed simultaneously. The forgetting mechanism deletes owner features in the pet robot's database. It has the advantages of reducing matching costs or database size and allowing adjustment to a change of owner. The effectiveness and practicality of the method are evaluated experimentally. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 169(1): 20–27, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20882