The news of a proper Buddhist funeral being held in Japan for more than 100 defunct robotic dogs initially struck Waki Kamino as odd.
But after a summer spent in Tokyo conducting hundreds of interviews with owners of social robots, Kamino – a doctoral student in the field of information science and a robotics researcher – came to understand the emotional and practical aspects of the funeral itself. She also happened upon a central premise in her latest research: a social robot’s death can inform its design.