Abstract
Social robots are increasingly used in different areas of society such as public health, elderly care, education, and commerce. They have also been successfully employed in autism spectrum disorders therapy with children. Humans strive to find in them not only assistants but also friends. Although forms and functionalities of such robots vary, there is a strong tendency to anthropomorphize artificial agents, making them look and behave as human as possible and imputing human attributes to them. The more human a robot looks, the more appealing it will be considered by humans. However, this linear link between likeness and liking only holds to the point where a feeling of strangeness and eeriness emerges. We discuss possible explanations of this so-called uncanny valley phenomenon that emerges in human–robot interaction. We also touch upon important ethical questions surrounding human–robot interaction in different social settings, such as elderly care or autism spectrum disorders therapy.
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Appendix: A Visual Sample of Select Social Robots
Appendix: A Visual Sample of Select Social Robots
1.1 AIBO
Used by permission of Sony Electronics Inc. All Rights Reserved
1.2 KASPAR
Used with permission from Adaptive Systems Research Group, University of Hertfordshire, UK
1.3 iCAT
Used with permission from Royal Philips N.V./Philips Company Archives
1.4 GENIBO
Used with permission from DST Robot 
1.5 Keepon
Used with permission from BeatBots LLC (Hideki Kozima & Marek Michalowski). Kozima, H., Michalowski, M. P. & Nakagawa, C. Int J of Soc Robotics (2009) 1: 3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-008-0009-8
1.6 Kismet
© Sam Ogden
1.7 Little Casper
Used with permission from The MOnarCH Consortium, Deliverable D2.2.1, December 2014
1.8 Paro
Used with permission from AIST, Japan
1.9 Harmony
Used with permission from Realbotix™, USA
1.10 Robovie R3 Robot
Uluer, P., Akalın, N. & Köse, H. Int J of Soc Robotics (2015) 7: 571. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-015-0307-x
1.11 Robot-Era Robotic Platforms for Elderly People
The three Robot-Era robotic platforms: Outdoor (left), Condominium (center), and Domestic (right). Di Nuovo, A., Broz, F., Wang, N. et al. Intel Serv Robotics (2018) 11: 109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11370-017-0237-6
1.12 Philip K. Dick
Used with permission from Hanson Robotics Limited
1.13 Sophia
Used with permission from Hanson Robotics Limited
1.14 Telenoid
Telenoid™ has been developed by Osaka University and Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR)
1.15 Geminoid HI-2
Geminoid™ HI-2 has been developed by Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR)
1.16 Geminoid F
Geminoid™ F has been developed by Osaka University and Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR)
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Mende, M.A., Fischer, M.H., Kühne, K. (2019). The Use of Social Robots and the Uncanny Valley Phenomenon. In: Zhou, Y., Fischer, M.H. (eds) AI Love You. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19734-6_3
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