Question
I don't know to which site this question belong, I'll try here.
As humans we can have very special relationships with some animals (dogs, cats, horses, etc...). For example my cat is very happy when I get back from work, he is sometimes sad when I'm leaving home, he always looks at me in the eyes, he sometimes understands and "answers" when I talk to him, etc... And I'm wondering if this is because they feel we are living beings (e.g. they feel we have a consciousness, or even that we are made out of flesh) or if a robot programmed to take care of an animal could have the same effect on him?
Answer
Could an animal establish a relationship with a robot programmed to take care of it?
Very interesting question. And I think the answer depends on the type of animal.
Social birds (like chicken, ducks, geese) imprint on the first moving thing they see after hatching. So it's very likely you could have a robot take care of a batch of hatchlings. Scientists have even tought crows to use a vending machine (the interesting part starts at 7:00 minutes). In a certain way you could argue that this is a machine taking care of the food needs of an animal...
Recently we had some very interesting questions about fish and I'm sure that fish could associate a feeding robot with positive emotions and swim to it. You could probably place robotic fish in a tank with real fish and have them happily coexist.
Small mammals living in family groups (like mice, rats, gerbils, guniea pigs and rabbits) would probably adapt their behavior if there were no other conspecifics around or if the robot imitates their anatomy and social behavior very well. Is this "taking care" of the social needs of an animal? It might be an acceptable substitute, but it's not the same as a living partner.
Now, cats are generally not the most social animals. They can live quite happily on their own with only social interactions during mating season. They socialize with humans for food and pettings and often strike along furniture to pet themselves. A robot might be able to provide petting and food, but cats are much more intelligent than birds and most rodents, so they would probably realize that it's no living thing. Would the cat care, though? Who knows...
Dogs, on the other hand (and probably horses and other herd animals, too) have complex social behavior and many, many mimics and gestures to communicate with each other. Some robots are built for films to imitate animals this one is pretty good, but their range of movement and gestures is very limited, because a motor is bigger than a muscle, especially in the face. Also note that this robot was remote controlled by a human and did not act autonomously. So with current technology we cannot fully imitate a dog. We don't even fully understand the social behavior of dogs and there are so many misconceptions, so the programming would probably be wrong and the robot wouldn't act like a real dog.
On the other hand, intelligent creatures can feel empathy, like demonstrated by lemurs in this video again with a remote controlled robot. So maybe a care robot wouldn't have to imitate them perfectly. Dogs are quite happy living with humans after all and there are numerous examples of animals nursing offspring of different species. In this video the maker of the Spy in the Wild robots explains that animals seem to think the robots are alive and are quite accepting once they convinced themselves that the robots are no threat.
In the end, I think a robot can only be a poor substitute for a human taking care of and interacting with an animal. The actual looks of the robot might not be as important as the behavior, and that is still lacking very much.
Answered By - Elmy