Human–Robot Interaction and Sexbots: A Systematic Literature Review

At present, sexual robots have become a new paradigm of social robots. In this paper, we developed a systematic literature review about sexual robots (sexbots). To do this, we used the Scopus and WoS databases to answer different research questions regarding the design, interaction, and gender and ethical approaches from 1980 until 2020. In our review, we found a male bias in this discipline, and in recent years, articles have shown that user opinion has become more relevant. Some insights and recommendations on gender and ethics in designing sexual robots were also made.

[1]  P. Henningsen,et al.  Your Robot Therapist Will See You Now: Ethical Implications of Embodied Artificial Intelligence in Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychotherapy , 2018, Journal of medical Internet research.

[2]  John P. Sullins.  Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-robot Relationships , 2010 .

[3]  Adrian David Cheok,et al.  Sex and a History of Sex Technologies , 2019, Human–Robot Intimate Relationships.

[4]  David Levy,et al.  Intimate Relationships With Artificial Partners , 2007 .

[5]  Michael A. Goodrich,et al.  Human-Robot Interaction: A Survey , 2008, Found. Trends Hum. Comput. Interact..

[6]  David Levy,et al.  Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships , 2008 .

[7]  C. Eichenberg,et al.  The Attitudes of Therapists and Physicians on the Use of Sex Robots in Sexual Therapy: Online Survey and Interview Study , 2019, Journal of medical Internet research.

[8]  Leonardo M. Gomes,et al.  User Evaluation of the Neurodildo: A Mind-Controlled Sex Toy for People with Disabilities and an Exploration of Its Applications to Sex Robots , 2018, Robotics.

[9]  Carina S. González-González,et al.  Sex with robots: analyzing the gender and ethics approaches in design , 2019, Interacción.

[10]  Tim Olds,et al.  Ken and Barbie at life size , 1996 .

[11]  Llyr ap Cenydd,et al.  Sexbots: a case for artificial ethical agents , 2020, Connect. Sci..

[12]  Robin Mackenzie,et al.  Sexbots: Customizing Them to Suit Us versus an Ethical Duty to Created Sentient Beings to Minimize Suffering , 2018, Robotics.

[13]  Arkapravo Bhaumik,et al.  From AI to Robotics: Mobile, Social, and Sentient Robots , 2018 .

[14]  Axel Cleeremans.  Computational correlates of consciousness. , 2005, Progress in brain research.

[15]  N. Döring,et al.  Sex toys, sex dolls, sex robots: Our under-researched bed-fellows , 2018, Sexologies.

[16]  Isabel Tajahuerce Ángel,et al.  Simulaciones sexo genéricas, bebés reborn y muñecas eróticas hiperrealistas , 2016 .

[17]  Markie L. C. Twist,et al.  The rise of digisexuality: therapeutic challenges and possibilities , 2017 .

[18]  Morten Nordmo,et al.  Friends, Lovers or Nothing: Men and Women Differ in Their Perceptions of Sex Robots and Platonic Love Robots , 2020, Frontiers in Psychology.

[19]  D. Moher,et al.  Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. , 2010, International journal of surgery.

[20]  Eric Aoki,et al.  Becoming (Hetero) Sexual? The Hetero-Spectacle of Idollators and their Real Dolls , 2013 .

[21]  Karl F. MacDorman,et al.  Sensitivity to the proportions of faces that vary in human likeness , 2008, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[22]  John Danaher,et al.  Regulating Child Sex Robots: Restriction or Experimentation? , 2019, Medical law review.

[23]  Belinda Middleweek,et al.  Male homosocial bonds and perceptions of human–robot relationships in an online sex doll forum , 2020 .

[24]  Budi Yulianto,et al.  Philosophy of Information Technology: Sex Robot and Its Ethical Issues , 2015 .

[25]  Gillian R. Bentley,et al.  Beyond the Sex Doll: Post-Human Companionship and the Rise of the 'Allodoll' , 2018, Robotics.

[26]  Rebekah Rousi,et al.  Me, My Bot and His Other (Robot) Woman? Keeping Your Robot Satisfied in the Age of Artificial Emotion , 2018, Robotics.

[27]  Charles Ess.  What’s Love Got to Do with It? Robots, Sexuality, and the Arts of Being Human , 2017 .

[28]  Nicole C. Krämer,et al.  Not Only the Lonely—How Men Explicitly and Implicitly Evaluate the Attractiveness of Sex Robots in Comparison to the Attractiveness of Women, and Personal Characteristics Influencing This Evaluation , 2017 .

[29]  Richard T. McClelland.  Confronting Emerging New Technology: The Case of the Sexbots , 2017 .

[30]  Jim Colman,et al.  Guys and dolls , 1976 .

[31]  Taezoon Park,et al.  Types of humor that robots can play , 2016, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[32]  Lily Frank,et al.  Robot sex and consent: Is consent to sex between a robot and a human conceivable, possible, and desirable? , 2017, Artificial Intelligence and Law.

[33]  C. Harper,et al.  Sex Doll Ownership: An Agenda for Research , 2020, Current Psychiatry Reports.

[34]  Nathan F. Lepora,et al.  A future of living machines?: International trends and prospects in biomimetic and biohybrid systems , 2014, Smart Structures.

[35]  Peter Ford Dominey,et al.  DAC-h3: A Proactive Robot Cognitive Architecture to Acquire and Express Knowledge About the World and the Self , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems.

[36]  Illah R. Nourbakhsh,et al.  A survey of socially interactive robots , 2003, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[37]  Blay Whitby,et al.  Sometimes it's hard to be a robot: A call for action on the ethics of abusing artificial agents , 2008, Interact. Comput..

[38]  Tony J. Prescott.  Me in the machine , 2015 .

[39]  Antonella De Angeli,et al.  Gender affordances of conversational agents , 2012, Interact. Comput..

[40]  Bela Bonita Chatterjee,et al.  Child sex dolls and robots: challenging the boundaries of the child protection framework , 2020, International Review of Law, Computers & Technology.

[41]  John P. Sullins.  Robots, Love, and Sex: The Ethics of Building a Love Machine , 2020, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

[42]  Adrian David Cheok,et al.  Lovotics: Love and Sex with Robots , 2016 .

[43]  Jane Shelling,et al.  Exploring the Implications of Child Sex Dolls , 2019 .

[44]  D. Moher,et al.  Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. , 2010, International journal of surgery.

[45]  Nicola Döring,et al.  Love and Sex with Robots: A Content Analysis of Media Representations , 2019, International Journal of Social Robotics.

[46]  Peter Ford Dominey,et al.  The Role of Autobiographical Memory in the Development of a Robot Self , 2017, Front. Neurorobot..

[47]  Juan Hou,et al.  Sex Differences in Facial and Vocal Attractiveness Among College Students in China , 2019, Front. Psychol..