Exploring Dogs' Reactions when Encountering Delivery Robots in Urban Environment

In this paper, we investigate how dogs react to delivery robots which they encounter on pedestrian walkways and sidewalks in urban environment. Our study is based on an online survey, where dog owners report the behavior of their dogs (n=212) who met delivery robots during a grocery store’s delivery robot pilot over several months. The salient findings show that while 61% of the participants reported neutral behavior of their dog when encountering a delivery robot for the first time, 8% of the dogs avoided and 9% showed hostile behavior towards the robot. Approximately 40% of the negatively reacting dogs did not behave more positively in the later encounters with robots. The study contributes to the discussion on understanding non-human actors when robots enter to the urban environment.