My Friend The Robot

AI Topics has a nice selection of articles on robot-human relations: Needing a shoulder to cry on? Try your new robot pal, Developing Robots as Social Companions and Robotic pets offer health benefits, too. You may also want to read this older post about the same topic.

The image to left shows a Japanese "Actroid" - a robot for events (whatever that may mean). The image is a slightly altered version of this wikimedia image (License).