SanTO robot: the new with a look at the past
Abstract
In the 1560s Philip II of Spain commissioned the realisation of a "mechanical monk", a small humanoid automaton with the ability to move and walk. Centuries later, a Catholic humanoid robot has been made. With the appearance of a statue of a saint and some interactive features, it is designed for Christian Catholic users for a variety of purposes. The robot features a dialogue system, which integrated within the multimodal communication consisting of vision, touch, voice and lights, drives the interaction with the users. The creation of SanTO offers new insights on the concept of sacredness applied to a robot and the role of automation in religion. While religion can be used as a mean to make robots more familiar to the users, on the other hand this union brings new ethical issues, and needs answers and regulation.
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