Sensitive Bot
The Cuddlebot was created by Anna Flagg, a Canadian artist and computer scientist. She thought of this for all of those lonely people on Valentine's day, or any day for that matter. This robot is able to tell the difference between nine different kinds of touch and respond differently to each one. She feels this is a step towards creating robots with emotions, and could lead to an advance in therapy robots.
This is a very interesting design. I feel that it has good thought in mind, although I don't personally believe that a piece of fake fur that moves can take place of a cat or any pet. Having pets myself, you become very close to them and the interactions and good times you have with them. Having only a robot figure that isn't even able to sit on your lap comfortably or sleep by your side does not match up. The emotional connection would not be there in order to have any kind of impact.
This is a very interesting design. I feel that it has good thought in mind, although I don't personally believe that a piece of fake fur that moves can take place of a cat or any pet. Having pets myself, you become very close to them and the interactions and good times you have with them. Having only a robot figure that isn't even able to sit on your lap comfortably or sleep by your side does not match up. The emotional connection would not be there in order to have any kind of impact.
Responding to Interactions
On the other hand, it mentions at the end of the article how if this is successful, it will be able to make an advance in therapy robots. Successful in real life is not the same as the success in the scientific way. It may not amount to the success it should be having as the "cuddle buddy", but I believe it is successful in starting to figure out how to give robots some kind of emotion. The problem that stopped doing this with this design is because it is only one block of "fur". It needs to be on a larger scale to make this emotional impact happen to give the illusion of realness and real scale interation. These qualities would bring the emotion between the robot and human. All in all, I believe this is good step into giving robots emotion for therapy purposes, although this particular robot is not yet there.