An entertainment robot is, as the name indicates, a robot that is not made for utilitarian use, as in production or domestic services, but for the sole subjective pleasure -an emotion, something machines, even the 'smartest' computers, are not capable to have- of the human it serves, usually the owner or his housemates, guests or clients.
Toy robot
Robots can be used as mechanical toys which perform various tasks and tricks on command. The first commercial hit was, not surprisingly, modelled on the most popular pet: the canine
Robot dog
The name robot dog is an oxymoron because if a thing is a robot it cannot also be a dog and vice versa. Nevertheless the term is usually used to mean a robot in the shape of a dog, or one which has other canine characteristics (such as a barking dog burglar alarm activated by disturbance of an infra-red beam). Robot dogs generated a fad and many were produced with little variation.
Even before robots were produced as toys, the concept was known in fiction:
- K-9 The Doctor's portable computer and robot, from the British BBC Television series Doctor Who.
- Preston - Wendolene's robot dog from the 1995 animated Wallace and Gromit film A Close Shave.
- Goddard pet of Jimmy Neutron.
These are some commercialized models:
- Teksta a toy robot dog popular in the 1990s which was intended to be able to perform card tricks and respond to commands.
- Aibo (The Sony robot dog)
- Poo-chi
- Bow-wow
- I-Cybie
- iDog (Sega's equivalent of the Aibo)
Substitute pets
While primitive robot toy models only execute standardized pre-programmed routines, sometimes little more than a wind-up toy could do, advancing technology allows for interaction with the user and/or other environmental stimuli (e.g. sensor-detected obstacles), thus somewhat resembling a live playmate, but which has no feelings and will thus always remain inferior to a pet, while more convenient as it may be (ab)used with impunity and has low maintenance.
Nevertheless in the mind of some users the things can hold the loved place of a pet, as demonstrated by the fact that some even sleep with a metallic one instead of a plush cuddly toy.
In fact manufacturers even found it pays to produce a toy that is essentially designed to be nurtured, rather like an egg in some 'parenting experience simulations', as proven by the success of the Japanese Tamagotchi.
Show robot
As usual in the entertainment industry, capital and creativity are invested to try and top anything the private person can afford. In fact, from their owner's point of view this is a professional use, but the product is designed with as end use in mind its appreciation by the public.
Thus expensive robots are made for use as:
- marketing tool - logically showed off by the manufacturers, to promote their products and technology, occasionally used in other promotional productions
- prop - inanimate performer or even artificial actor in show, TV and movie production (as the fictitious first toy robots, see above); as technology advances, some advanced robots can, often helped with other special effects, to make them seem what cannot (yet), even be significantly more than a cast extra, such as the Starwars 'droids' R-2 D-2 and CP-30 in the Star Wars double trilogy (1977-2005) which have proved rather popular from the start.