Mad Science Experiments

In the early days of behavioural research, scientists would try to fool animals with crude dummies. In the interim, however, the robot age has also caught up with ethology. Researchers from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris tried to find out whether dogs would accept Sony’s commercial dogbot AIBO as one of their own. And so they brought 40 dogs into contact with the techno-dog, which measures a foot (30 cm) from nose to tail and weighs in at just over three pounds (1.5 kg). For some of the tests, they covered AIBO in a fleece that they’d put in a puppy’s basket the day before.

As a control, the scientists also showed the dogs a real puppy and a toy car. From their orientation to and distance away from the dogbot, and from the frequency with which they barked, growled and sniffed the robot (its front and rear ends), they concluded that "at present there are some serious limitations in using AIBO robots for behavioural tests with dogs". The dogs did react to the dogbot, but far less strongly than they did to the puppy.

On their website, the researchers are at pains to point out that no animals were harmed in the course of the experiment. AIBO was on the receiving end of several attacks, but kept on working like clockwork. Even so, the researchers warn you not to try this at home: the manufacturer’s warranty on the AIBO doesn’t cover this kind of damage.

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