Do you have a dog at home? Have you taught them any tricks? Most dogs have human owners that want to teach them tricks. But some scientists wanted to see if dogs could do tricks if they received commands from a robot!
First, the scientists wanted to give the dog a change to explore its surroundings and learn the task. They started by bringing one dog in at a time with their owner. They let it sniff the room, the robot, and one of the scientists, who was there to help. Once the dog was comfortable in the room, the owner called the dog over. If the dog came, it got a treat. Then, the owner gave two commands (without hand signals). If the dog did the two tricks, it got another treat. After the dog did two tricks for its owner, it had to learn how to do tricks for the robot.
The owner led their dog over to the robot. The robot had a speaker, and the owner’s voice played over it, as though the robot were speaking. The voice gave the same two commands as before. If the dog did the tricks again, it got a treat.
Now, the dog has learned how to listen to the robot. The scientists could move on to the testing phase. There were four different scenarios in which the dog had to do their tricks for treats. In the first one, the robot and a scientist are in the room, and the robot gives commands and treats. In the second one, the owner, robot, and a scientist are in the room, and the robot gives commands and treats. In the third, only the robot is in the room, and the robot gives commands and treats. In the fourth one, the owner and the robot are both in the room, but the owner is the one that gives the commands and treats.
After all the dogs went through the tests, the scientists looked at how often the dogs did tricks correctly. They found that dogs did well with their owners and the robots! That means that dogs can learn how to do tricks based on the commands of a robot. That is pretty cool and important. There are some people who may not be able to use their voices very well because of sickness or other reasons. Maybe they can use robots to teach their dogs tricks instead!
Shaw, N. & Riley, L. M. (2020). Domesticated dogs respond correctly to verbal cues issued by an artificial agent. Applied Animal Behavior Science, 224, 104940. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2020.104940
