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Buying a Robot Cat and Falling into the Weird World of Animal-Robot Research

What began as a TikTok experiment with my rabbit led me into a strange world of cyborg cockroaches, imposter fish, and the ethics of care.

This “Joy for All” companion robot, created by the company Ageless Innovation, is supposed to help people living with dementia feel calmer, offer a sense of companionship, and provide opportunities to give care by interacting with a lifelike “cat.” Our research team was going to use it for a pop-up exhibition on care robots at a local museum, but before that event, I used the tabby cat to create a TikTok page called Robot_meets_pet. Here, for example, one finds work to regulate and direct bee behavior (individually and at the colony level) by a robotic device that modulates the hive environment with vibrations and heat. We are told that they can help protect (often older) people by ensuring they are safe in their homes or care environment, or by governing their intake of medicine and food, or by engaging them in beneficial exercise or being social companions.

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