Since the early 1990s, researchers have developed robots which are able to explicitly engage on a social level. Social robots are autonomous mobile machines that are designed to interact with humans and exhibit social behaviors such as recognizing, following and assisting their owners as well as engaging in conversation. This has been made possible by advances in artificial intelligence, sensors, and battery technology.
Some of the current applications of social robots are as bell-hops that deliver extra toiletries to hotel guests, hospitality robots that welcome customers to a store, family assistants that read recipes and keep track of everyone’s calendar, and robotized walkers that enable the elderly to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The popular social robots that are commercially available are JIBO, Pepper, Buddy, and Musio.
Provided in this report are insights into the patents addressing the technologies and applications related to social robots. The study is restricted to patents published in the last twenty years.
