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Small write-up for a companion robot I made for a competition.

MiniMate

Minimate 1, developed for ATL Marathon ’23 by Aashvik Tyagi and Vivaan Mansukhani, is an open-source companion robot to help people overcome depression.

To start off, depression is horrible. Depression makes common tasks difficult and life seem uninteresting, and we’d rather it not be. In essence, what we want to is help those depressed.

Pets have proven themselves to be effective at helping people get through or even steer clear of stress 2 3 4 time and time again, but they come with issues, including very high care and costly 5 maintenance, which people suffering from depression may be unable to provide for. This leads to many people, including those who can afford to keep pets, being unable to do so because of the time, attention and care pets require.

Robot companions are much better in that regard as they don’t require being fed, groomed, cleaned, or walked, ever, while offering psychological benefits that conventional pets do 6 7 8. Our solution, MiniMate, is meant to be a robot friend, not just a pet but also a companion that helps people overcome or steer clear of loneliness and, in the case of sadness, uplifts their mood. Even though MiniMate was originally built to be a friend and pet or those who struggle with depression it can be an amazing companion for anyone and everyone.

The idea is for MiniMate to be completely hands-free and voice-controlled, with speech-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities. It can be an adorable addition to anyone’s life and might just be the perfect gift for your friends and family. MiniMates can not only help keep everyone’s spirits high with their limitless jokes and cool dance sequences but can also connect to Wi-Fi to answer your questions and aid you in your daily life by providing recent news, weather updates, et cetera, keeping children 9 and elders 10 11 entertained, connected and happy for long periods.

We’ve created a base for others to build upon, with made multiple functions that can be modified, customised, and improved upon by others. All that we’ve worked on till now can be found on our GitHub repository.

  1. “On The Shoulders Of Companions” title inspiration signifying the contribution of company to mental well-being. ↩

  2. Effect of Dog Presence on Stress Levels in Students under Psychological Strain: A Pilot Study ↩

  3. Paws for Thought: A Controlled Study Investigating the Benefits of Interacting with a House-Trained Dog on University Students Mood and Anxiety ↩

  4. Pet Ownership and Quality of Life: A Systematic Review of the Literature ↩

  5. The Impact of Pet Health Insurance on Dog Owners’ Spending for Veterinary Services ↩

  6. The Impact of Robotic Companion Pets on Depression and Loneliness for Older Adults with Dementia During the COVID-19 Pandemic ↩

  7. Robotic Pet Use Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults ↩

  8. Animal-assisted and robotic animal-assisted interventions within dementia care: A systematic review ↩

  9. Fostering children’s creativity through LLM-driven storytelling with a social robot ↩

  10. The Benefit of Pets and Animal-Assisted Therapy to the Health of Older Individuals ↩

  11. Robot Pets as “Serious Toys”- Activating Social and Emotional Experiences of Elderly People ↩

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