The potential of Animal-Robot Interaction (ARI) in welfare applications depends on how much an animal perceives a robotic agent as socially relevant, non-threatening and potentially attractive (acceptance). Here, we present an animal-centered soft robotic affective interface for newly hatched chicks (Gallus gallus). The soft interface provides safe and controllable cues, including warmth, breathing-like rhythmic deformation, and face-like visual stimuli. We evaluated chick acceptance of the interface and chick-robot interactions by measuring spontaneous approach and touch responses during video tracking. Overall, chicks approached and spent increasing time on or near the interface, demonstrating acceptance of the device. Across different layouts, chicks showed strong preference for warm thermal stimulation, which increased over time. Face-like visual cues elicited a swift and stable preference, speeding up the initial approach to the tactile interface. Although the breathing cue did not elicit any preference, neither did it trigger avoidance, paving the way for further exploration. These findings translate affective interface concepts to ARI, demonstrating that appropriate soft, thermal and visual stimuli can sustain early chick-robot interactions. This work establishes a reliable evaluation protocol and a safe baseline for designing multimodal robotic devices for animal welfare and neuroscientific research.

翻译：动物-机器人交互（ARI）在福利应用中的潜力取决于动物将机器人视为具有社会相关性、无威胁且具有潜在吸引力（接受度）的程度。本文提出了一种以动物为中心、面向新生雏鸡（Gallus gallus）的软体机器人情感交互接口。该软体接口可提供安全可控的线索，包括温暖感、类似呼吸的节律性形变以及类似面部的视觉刺激。我们通过视频追踪中自发接近和触碰反应的评估，测量了雏鸡对该接口的接受度及雏鸡-机器人交互行为。总体而言，雏鸡倾向于接近并在接口上或附近停留更长时间，表明对该装置的接受。在不同布局中，雏鸡对温暖热刺激表现出强烈偏好，且这种偏好随时间增强。类似面部的视觉线索引发了快速而稳定的偏好，加速了雏鸡对触觉接口的初次接近。尽管呼吸类线索未引发偏好，但也未导致回避行为，为后续探索铺平了道路。这些发现将情感接口概念转化至ARI领域，证明了适当的软体、热刺激和视觉刺激可维持雏鸡早期的机器人交互行为。本工作为设计用于动物福利和神经科学研究的模态化机器人装置建立了可靠的评估方案和安全基线。