Could technology-augmented service dogs defeat social robots? Attempt for resolving the „service dog vs. service robot” type dilemmas

Abstract

Background and objectives: With the development of robot technologies, new devices with a purpose of service, such as home-care robots or robot animals have appeared. However – as a hearing-impaired dog owner and remedial teacher-sociologist – I often face the question of what the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the service “creatures” vs.  service “machines” are. The literature does not discuss together the solutions provided by service dogs and new technical devices, as the authors are usually the representatives of disciplines that are far from each other (e. g. remedial teacher, service dog trainer or engineer), “only” the target group to be supported and the issues to be solved might be common to some extent. Common action of service dogs and social robots is still in the lap of the gods. However, with the joint application of the different disciplines, positive synergetic effects could be validated. Aiming to maximize these benefits I identified then adopted a set of best practices in the frame of an integrated multidisciplinary benchmark approach.

Method: I propose the combination of the rehabilitation possibilities provided by technology and service dogs (“technology-assisted service dog”) to validate the recognized synergistic effects.

Results: We developed the functional design and laboratory implementation of a “smart collar” which supports service dog’s search for a larger number of objects. Design, implementation, and results were evaluated by a Multidisciplinary Benchmark procedure.

Conclusions: The technology-assisted four-legged assistants could perform better in doing many tasks that – at first sight –modern service robots seem to be unbeatable in.