Robot Pet History: Aibo, Paro and ABB Robots

For most of its history the robot pet was a toy or a gadget. In 2026 companies are designing it as a housemate for older people who live alone. On 6 October Kawasaki Heavy Industries showed Home Leo, a dog shaped robot meant to talk with older users, watch over them and call for help when something goes wrong. This post looks at how mechanical animals started, from Jacques de Vaucanson's duck to Sony's Aibo and the Paro seal, at what the new robot dogs and cats can do, and at where ABB robots such as YuMi and GoFa could help make them.

LOVOT, Buddy, Moxie and Aibo home robots in the Robots exhibition at the mNACTEC science museum in Catalonia, September 2026. Photo: Enric / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How mechanical animals became robot pets

People built artificial animals long before electronics. In 18th century France, Jacques de Vaucanson made a duck of gold plated copper, the size of a real one. It could quack, stir water with its bill, drink and take grain from an operator's hand, and it seemed to digest what it ate. That part was a trick: the grain went into one container, and prepared pellets came out of another. The duck is thought to have been destroyed in a fire at a private museum in 1879.

An old photograph of the presumed remains of Vaucanson's duck, showing its frame, weights and wheel work. Photo: unknown author via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Sony made the first robot pet that sold in large numbers. Its first consumer Aibo, the ERS-110, went on sale in 1999 for 250,000 yen, about US$2,500, in a run of 5,000 units, 3,000 for Japan and 2,000 for the US. The Japanese stock sold out online in 20 minutes. Owners got a dog that walked, reacted to touch and chased a pink ball. The artist Hajime Sorayama drew the first body designs. In January 2006 Sony announced it would stop making Aibo, and repairs for the old models ended in July 2014.

An early 2000s Sony Aibo robot dog with its pink ball, on display at Palazzo Pretorio in Pontedera, Italy. Photo: Sailko / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Paro came out of a research lab. Takanori Shibata at Japan's AIST research institute began work on it in 1993 and modelled it on harp seals he had seen on the ice in northeastern Canada. Tactile sensors sit under its fur, its whiskers are touch sensitive and it has three microphones, so it reacts when people stroke it or speak to it. Handmade units have been sold since 2004, and US regulators classed it as a medical device in 2009. Care homes use it mainly as therapy for people with dementia.

Visitors stroke Paro therapeutic robot seals at Wired NextFest in Chicago, 2005. Photo: Aaron Biggs / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The new robot dogs and cats for older people

Kawasaki Heavy Industries showed Home Leo at a business briefing in Tokyo on 6 October 2026, Jiji Press reported. Some English reports called it a robot cat, but Jiji Press and The Japan Times describe a dog shaped design. The company says the robot uses physical AI to talk, recognize its surroundings, make decisions and act on its own. It learns what its users like in food, clothing and daily routines and fits its conversation to them. Kawasaki plans for it to alert family members or care workers if it notices a fall, a change in health or a fire hazard. Trials with care facilities and local governments come first, with a launch in Japan planned for fiscal 2028.

Sony's Aibo ERS-1000 robot dogs, the model launched in January 2018, on show in 2018. Photo: KKPCW / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Several robot pets are already on sale. Sony brought Aibo back as the ERS-1000 in January 2018, and it is still on the market. Paro is in care homes in several countries, and American families buy simpler robotic cats and dogs from the Joy for All line, now made by Ageless Innovation. On 30 September NBC4 Washington reported that robotic pets are helping older adults find companionship. Care work in general is covered in our post on elder care, and robots for children in companion robots for kids.

A Paro seal robot for people with dementia, shown with its 2018 Ryman Prize. Photo: Syced / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

ABB does not make robot pets, but these products are built from the small parts that ABB robots already assemble in electronics plants. A robot dog is motors, gearboxes, circuit boards and sensors inside a plastic shell. ABB designed its dual arm YuMi for small part assembly next to people, and the GoFa CRB 15000 cobot does screwdriving, testing and packing at human speed. No pet maker is documented as using ABB arms, so this part of the story is a possibility only.

ABB YuMi assembling small parts beside a lab worker. Photo: ABB

Where robot pets go next, at home and in the factory

Kawasaki's plan for Home Leo shows where robot pets are heading: a pet that remembers routines, talks back and alerts carers instead of only reacting to touch. A robot that records what an older person eats, wears and does all day needs clear rules on who can see that data, the same question people already ask about smart speakers. Shibata has been testing whether robots like Paro help people with dementia since the 1990s, and the new AI pets will have to show the same kind of evidence before care homes trust them.

Takanori Shibata presents the ninth generation of Paro in a lecture on 7 June 2018. Photo: Geraldshields11 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Price is the other problem. Aibo has always been expensive, and a pet with cameras, AI and care alerts has to be affordable for ordinary families and care homes. If demand grows, makers will want lines that can switch quickly between models and colours. Cells built around YuMi or GoFa could assemble heads, legs and sensor boards in small batches, and engineers usually plan such cells first in RobotStudio. Nobody has reported a cell like that yet.

An ABB GoFa CRB 15000 cobot at a work table. Photo: ABB

For buyers at home, a robot pet has to be safe around frail people, easy to charge and clean, and able to run for years. Buyers should ask how long the maker promises spare parts and software updates. Support matters as much as the hardware, as the owners of old Aibos found out after 2014. Vaucanson's duck only had to fool an audience for an afternoon. Home Leo and the robot dogs and cats that follow it are meant to keep someone company every day and notice when they fall.

Programming a single arm YuMi with Wizard on the FlexPendant. Photo: ABB

Innovation

AI solutions for effortless ABB robot control.

Automation

Robotics

ceojohntran@chatwithrobot.net

+84905311611

© 2025. All rights reserved.

qtran1215@gmail.com