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The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the relationship between self-reported levels of acute stress, perceived social support and interactions with robot animals in an academic library. The authors hypothesized that (1) participants would report lower stress and higher positive affect after their interaction with a robot support animal and (2) perceived supportiveness of the robot support animal would positively predict the amount of stress reduction the participants reported.

The authors hosted a robot petting zoo in the main library at a mid-sized Midwestern university during finals week. Participants were asked to rate their stress level prior to interacting with the robot pets (T1) and then after their interaction they were asked about their current stress level and the perceived supportiveness of the robot animal (T2). Data were analyzed using paired samples t-tests for the pretest and post-test scores.

The results showed a significant decrease in acute stress between T1 to T2, as well as a significant increase in happiness and relaxation. Participants reported feeling less bored and less tired after their interactions with the robot support animals. The findings also reveal that the degree to which individuals experienced a reduction in stress was influenced by their perceptions of the robot animal's supportiveness. Libraries could consider using robot pet therapy.

This study reveals the benefit of robot support animals to reduce stress and increase happiness of those experiencing acute stress in a library setting. The authors also introduce the concept of socially supportive contact as a type of unidirectional social support.

This paper aims to discuss the questioning around the current suitability of ownership both for accessing to certain property (housing, to be more specific) and chattels (digital contents, animals and autonomous robots) that have recently flourished, favored by technological advances and the change in the values of the millennials’ in a context of crisis.

The process of substitution (e.g. through alternative housing tenures, such as intermediate tenures and collaborative housing, licensing digital contents) or erosion/elimination (e.g. owning animals and robots, tokenization through blockchain) of ownership through key types of property and chattels.

Ownership, both of land and goods, is again at the stake. Technological advances and/or new values of millennials in a context of crisis have led to questioning the suitability of ownership to favor universal access to housing, of holding music and other digital contents, have limited the faculties of animals’ and pets’ owners and are favoring the evolution of autonomous robots into subjects of law rather than mere objects.

Only key property (housing) and chattels are studied (digital contents, animals, robots). There is no broad study of the global current situation of ownership.

It is discussed how the changes of values and technological advances in a context of crisis have impacted in the strength and reliability of ownership to allow access to property and chattels.

These changes in ownership change how we can access to property (housing) and to chattels (digital media) and even to changes in what is considered “object” such as what is happening in Europe with animals and robots.

This is a new approach to consequences of the crisis in the field of housing (fractioning of ownership -temporal and shared ownership-, collaborative economy) and a change of values in the new millennial generation (animals) in this context and owing to the advance of the new technologies (robots). Is ownership again at the stake?

This paper aims to explore theme park visitors’ attitudes toward interacting with robots and investigated the qualities and functions of robotic servers and their influence on customers’ loyalty. A structural equation modeling approach was used to identify the complex relationships among variables in the entire network.

An online survey randomly assigned respondents to four different robotic server scenarios with robots that look like humans, animals, cartoon characters and anime features. The influence of robot types was investigated by manipulating robot type with four different pictures; however, the data were analyzed with a structural equation modeling model to identify the complex relationships rather than one-way analysis of variance to identify influences of robot types on different variables in separate analyzes.

The data collected from the 385 experienced theme park visitors revealed that perception of robots with human orientation and safety qualities had the strongest effect on the perceived robotic functionality, while emotions and co-creation qualities hardly had any effect on the perceived functionality, which included utilitarian rather than experiential functions such as excitement. Human orientation qualities, regardless of the specific robotic design, had a significant impact on perceived robotic functionality. The study also revealed a strong positive influence of perceived robotic functionality on customer loyalty.

The debate of whether or not to introduce and blend the growing robotic technology into the theme park experience is in its infancy. The study contributes to the theory of how robotics qualities and functions can augment customer loyalty.

Because of the inconvenience and inflexibility of the laser controller, the applied range of optogenetics is limited. This paper aims to present the design of a portable remote-controlled laser controller system, including the remote-controlled system and the laser stimulator.

The remote-controlled system is handheld, which can wirelessly adjust the power and the emitting frequency of the laser by utilizing the ZigBee module.

The laser stimulator can be mounted on the animal as it is light weight (35 g) and small in size (40 × 40 × 20 mm), and its power and frequency can be appropriately adjusted by changing the current amplitude and duty radio. In the end, the experiments verify the reliability and effectiveness of the laser controller.

In virtue of the modular design of the driven circuit and the reasonable layout, the whole system has the advantages of small volume, convenient control and high stability, which provide the convenience for the development of portable optogenetics animal robot experiment and has broad market prospects.

This study aims to understand the theme park visitors’ perceived robotic qualities featured in four different robots, assess their robotic functions and consumers’ loyalty toward four different robotic server types.

A structured online survey of 399 respondents measured and compared consumer perceptions related to qualities and functions of robots in a theme park context and consumers’ behavioral intentions in four different robotic scenarios – anime, cartoon-like, human-like and animal-like robots in theme parks. Survey data were collected on an online platform and analyzed by SPSS.

The results showed some expected differences in robotic qualities among the different robot-type scenarios, but similar reactions overall. The findings also provided insight into the type of robots that consumers prefer and showed a little more preference toward human-like robotic servers.

The study was restricted to several robotic scenarios in North American theme parks. Future qualitative and quantitative studies should look in more detail at theme park visitors’ participation in the robotic service delivery process, the robots’ mobility and interactions with fellow visitors.

The findings can guide practitioners on robots’ looks, qualities and functionalities to consider for introducing to their patrons to create more interactive environments and experiences.

The study revealed some new knowledge about consumer expectations for robotic servers in theme parks. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that compares different robot types on their perceived appearance, qualities and functionality, or consumers’ behavioral tendencies in the context of theme parks.

本研究对 399 名受访者进行的结构化在线调查测量并比较了消费者对主题公园环境中机器人质量和功能的看法以及消费者的行为四种不同机器人场景中的意图——动漫、卡通、人类和主题公园中的动物机器人。调查数据由在线平台收集并通过 SPSS 进行分析。

该研究旨在了解主题公园游客感知到的四种不同机器人所具有的机器人品质, 评估它们的机器人功能, 以及消费者对四种不同机器人服务器类型的忠诚度。

结果显示, 不同机器人类型场景中机器人质量存在一些预期差异, 但总体反应相似。调查结果还提供了有关消费者偏好机器人类型的信息, 并显示出对类人机器人服务器的更多偏好。

该研究仅限于北美主题公园的几个机器人场景。未来的定性和定量研究应该更详细地研究主题公园游客参与机器人服务交付过程、机器人的移动性以及与其他游客的互动。

这些发现可以指导从业者机器人的外观、品质和功能, 以考虑将其介绍给他们的顾客, 以创造更多的互动环境和体验。

该研究揭示了一些关于消费者对主题公园机器人服务器期望的新知识。到目前为止, 还没有其他研究比较不同机器人类型的感知外观, 质量、功能或消费者在主题公园背景下的行为倾向。

This essay asks: How can we understand and theorise the impacts of robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on everyday life based on Radical Humanism? How can Lefebvre's ideas be used to reveal the ideological character of contemporary accounts of the impacts of robots and AI on society? It engages with rather unknown works of the Radical Humanist Henri Lefebvre on the sociology and philosophy of technology such as Vers le cybernanthrope (Towards the Cybernanthrope). Foundations of a Lefebvrian, dialectical, Radical Humanist approach to the sociology and philosophy of technology are presented. This essay introduces Lefebvre's notion of the cybernanthrope and sets it in relation to robots and AI in contemporary society. Based on Lefebvre's critique of the cybernanthrope, this chapter develops foundations of the ideology critique of robots and AI in digital capitalism. It discusses examples of technological deterministic and social constructivist thought in the context of robotics, AI, and cyborgs and argues for an alternative, Lefebvrian, dialectical approach. This essay situates Humanism in the context of computing, AI and robotics. The chapter advances a Lefebvrian Radical Humanism by engaging in analyses of AI and robots in Post-humanism, Transhumanism, techno-deterministic approaches, social construction of technology approaches, techno-optimism, techno-pessimism, acceleratonism, the mass unemployment hypothesis and Spike Jonze's movie Her. This chapter shows that the major lesson we can learn from the Radical Humanist sociology of technology and Henri Lefebvre's works on technology is that Radical Humanism helps creating and sustaining technologies for the many, not the few. This insight remains of high relevance in the age of digital capitalism, smart robots and AI.

The aim of the study is to conduct a thematic review of assessment tools and types of activities in the application of robotics to autistic students during the period 1996–2021 using Web of Science and Scopus. The sample consisted of 119 documents.

Nowadays, emerging technologies have become increasingly prevalent across various fields of knowledge. In this regard, robotics is being increasingly applied in the educational environment. The characteristics of this tool are the ones that best suit the needs of autistic students.

Results reveal that 16.80% of the studies used automatic measurement systems, whilst 15.96% of the studies used user observation and recording techniques. As for the tasks, 37.80% were focussed on imitation tasks. Amongst the practical implications is the need to include tasks that could be developed collaboratively in the regular classroom.

With this research, it is intended to disseminate in the scientific community what are the characteristics that should have the interaction activities between a robot and autistic students. In addition, the type of tool needed to evaluate the improvements in the interaction is proposed.

Seeks to present here a system that enables the user to design artificial worlds and inhabitants within these worlds.

An alife (artificial life) approach is used in order to obtain complex behaviour as the emergence of a set of basic behaviours which interact within the environment and between them. Through the paper, the reader will find the necessary details to understand the architecture and the computational model of the system, as well as the way to use it in a specific application: modelling behaviour for synthetic cockroaches within his own environment.

A detailed example is given of how this application can be used in simulating ecological environments, where the user can design an inhabited ecosystem and observe (tuning it if necessary) the evolution of the artificial ecosystem. Also outlined is another example of how this research system can be coupled with a commercial 3D computer animation software; the goal in this case is to produce automatically a script for a computer animation, reflecting what is happening in the artificial world.

The paper describes a technical research system that allows the user to design reactive behaviour modelling for cockroaches. The next natural step is to make a cognitive behaviour modelling and to extend it to other animals.

Fusion between research systems and commercial packages (in this case, for example, behaviour modelling and 3D computer animation systems) can be an important issue.

The main interests of the presented system face compared with the existing ones are the coordinated use of several alife techniques, the integral approach (design of both the environment and the inhabitants), a computationally reasonable implementation of the system as an artificial ecosystem, and the possibility of using the results of such a research system as an input for a commercial 3D software in order to obtain 3D realistic computer animations.