Companion robot

A companion robot is a robot created to create real or apparent companionship for human beings. Target markets for companion robots include the elderly and single children. Companions robots are expected to communicate with non-experts in a natural and intuitive way. They offer a variety of functions, such as monitoring the home remotely, communicating with people, or waking people up in the morning. Their aim is to perform a wide array of tasks including educational functions, home security, diary duties, entertainment and message delivery services, etc.

The idea of companionship with robots has already existed on science fictions of 1970s, like R2-D2. Starting from the late 20th century, companion robots started to came out on reality, mostly as robotic pets. Besides entertainment purposes, interactive robots were also introduced as a personal service robot for elderly care around 2000.