…and penguins, fish and more. While a veritable robotic animal kingdom exists, a lot of these neat-looking robots don’t have any particularly new or significant advances. Rather, they tend to be useful for education, entertainment and research. To name a few:  jellyfish, a mosquito, a sea lamprey, snakes,  an octopus, a dinosaur, a horned mule, chicks, a panda, a faceless bunny, clams, lobsters and sharks. And you have to admire the streamlined grace of these bionic, glowing-eyed penguins.


Researchers generally use robotic creatures of the sea used to collect data and track real animals, such as these fish from the European BMT Group. National Geographic (which hardly ever features robots) describes how a robotic turkey was used to catch poachers. Paro the baby seal aims to relax and soothe the elderly, while the militant BigDog can help soldiers in the field.

Robotic animals are even used for art, as demonstrated by this amazing New York art installation last year. British artist Banksy’s robotic pet store features more unusual ‘animals,’ making a sharp statement about how we treat animals: a caged lepoard coat swings its tail, a rabbit admires her cosmetics, fishsticks swim in a fish bowl and chicken nuggets and hot dogs care for their young.

If you’re looking for more conventional automatons to purchase, the Electronic Pet Shop in the UK ships around the world.

The proliferation of more and more robotic animals evoke Philip K. Dick’s vision of the future in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the inspiration for BladeRunner). In the story, animal species are endangered and owning a real animal is a sign of status. People buy robotic animals to likewise earn social respect. It’s not hard to imagine at some point in our future, as electronics become cheaper and cheaper and species potentially become more endangered, robotic pets might usurp real ones. 

I’d like to think I’d never swap a real kitten for a Paro, even if the kitty does misbehave. How much to trade life’s impracticality for technology’s convenience seems to be an ongoing question in our lifetime. Of course, technology is not mutually exclusive to “life,” though in the case of a robotic pet versus a real one, it’s fairly clear-cut. Unless, of course, Fluffy is a cyborg.