Background concepts and outline of the book

Abstract

Sociorobots (Social Robots) are designed to interact, ‘socially’ with their users, and exhibit human-like appearance and performance. Sociorobots, or as otherwise called ‘socially assistive robots’, are used to provide assistance, entertainment, companionship, and therapeutic care for children and elderly with mental impairments. This chapter provides some basic concepts of sociorobotics, viz. terminology, formal definition and categories of sociorobots, intelligence, autonomy, and locomotion issues of anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and wheeled mobile sociorobots, including a historical note.