Would you trust a robot to take care of your cat? New research shows that caring for your cat takes more than a carefully designed robot, the environment in which they work, as well as human interaction.
Cat is a unique collaboration between computer scientists from the Royal University of Nottingham and artists from Blast Theory who worked together to create a multi-dimensional world in a place where three cats and a robot arm day. I live together for six hours. A twelve-day installation as part of an artist-led project. The installation was launched at the World Science Festival in Brisbane, Australia in 2023 and has been touring ever since, having just won a Webby Award for its creative experience.
The research paper, “Designing Multispecies Worlds for Robots, Cats and Humans,” has just been presented at the annual Computer Human Conference (CHI'24) where it won Best Paper. It shows how it is not enough to design technology and its interactions, but that it is equally important to consider the design of the 'world' in which the technology operates. Research has also highlighted the need for human involvement in areas such as disorder rehabilitation, animal welfare, and their role as audiences.
Kate Royal centered around a robotic arm that offers activities to entertain cats, including dragging a 'mouse' toy across the floor, lifting 'birds' into the air, and even Includes offering food to eat. The team then trained an AI to learn which games cats liked best so it could personalize their experiences.
“At first glance, this project is about designing a robot that improves the lives of a family of cats by playing with them.” Professor Steve Benford of the University of Nottingham, who led the research, commented, “Beneath the surface, however, this research does. The question is what is involved in trusting robots to care for loved ones and possibly ourselves. Required.
Working with Blast Theory to develop and then study CatRoyal, the research team gained important insights into the design of the robot and its interactions with cats. They had to design robots to pick up toys, deploying them in a way that would excite the cats, while learning what games each cat liked. They also designed the entire world that the cats and robots lived in, provided safe places for the cats to observe and sneak up on the robot, and decorated it so that the robot could see approaching cats. Great opportunity. .
This means that designing robots involves internal design as well as engineering and AI. If you want to introduce a robot into your home to take care of your loved ones, you will need to redesign your home.
Research workshops for Cat Royale were held at the University of Nottingham's unique Cobotmaker Space where stakeholders were bought together to think about robot design/cat welfare. Eike Schneiders, interim assistant professor at the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham, who worked on the design, said: “As we learned through Cat Royale, create a multi-species system — where cats, robots and humans are accounted for. – In addition to designing the robot we had to ensure the welfare of the animals at all times, while ensuring that the interactive installation engaged the (human) audience around the world, including the design of the enclosure. Includes robots and their core systems, various human characters, and of course cats.”