Related papers: Responsible Robotics: A Socio-Ethical Addition To …
Modular robots can be rearranged into a new design, perhaps each day, to handle a wide variety of tasks by forming a customized robot for each new task. However, reconfiguring just the mechanism is not sufficient: each design also requires…
Domestic and service robots have the potential to transform industries such as health care and small-scale manufacturing, as well as the homes in which we live. However, due to the overwhelming variety of tasks these robots will be expected…
Social robots are increasingly being explored as tools to support emotional wellbeing, particularly in non-clinical settings. Drawing on a range of empirical studies and practical deployments, this paper outlines six key insights that…
Deploying mobile robots in construction sites to collaborate with workers or perform automated tasks such as surveillance and inspections carries the potential to greatly increase productivity, reduce human errors, and save costs. However…
This paper describes a new research project that aims to develop a social robot designed to help children cope with painful and distressing medical procedures in a clinical setting. While robots have previously been trialled for this task,…
Control theory is an important cornerstone of the robotics field and is considered a fundamental subject in an undergraduate and postgraduate robotics curriculum. Furthermore, project-based learning has shown significant benefits in…
Moral responsibility is a major concern in autonomous systems, with applications ranging from self-driving cars to kidney exchanges. Although there have been recent attempts to formalise responsibility and blame, among similar notions, the…
Open access to publication, software and hardware is central to robotics: it lowers barriers to entry, supports reproducible science and accelerates reliable system development. However, openness also exacerbates the inherent dual-use risks…
To act in the world, robots rely on a representation of salient task aspects: for example, to carry a coffee mug, a robot may consider movement efficiency or mug orientation in its behavior. However, if we want robots to act for and with…
A new generation of increasingly autonomous and self-learning embodied systems is about to be developed. When deploying embodied systems into a real-life context we face various engineering challenges, as it is crucial to coordinate the…
Socially aware navigation is a fast-evolving research area in robotics that enables robots to move within human environments while adhering to the implicit human social norms. The advent of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has accelerated…
This paper presents an iterative, participatory, empirical study that examines the potential of using artificial intelligence, such as social robots and large language models, to support mediation and advocacy for students with disabilities…
As testified by new regulations like the European AI Act, worries about the human and societal impact of (autonomous) software technologies are becoming of public concern. Human, societal, and environmental values, alongside traditional…
Teleoperation is increasingly recognized as a viable solution for deploying robots in hazardous environments. Controlling a robot to perform a complex or demanding task may overload operators resulting in poor performance. To design a robot…
As an envisaged future of transportation, self-driving cars are being discussed from various perspectives, including social, economical, engineering, computer science, design, and ethics. On the one hand, self-driving cars present new…
Sidewalk robots are increasingly common across the globe. Yet, their operation on public paths poses challenges for people with mobility disabilities (PwMD) who face barriers to accessibility, such as insufficient curb cuts. We interviewed…
Humanoid robots are increasingly being integrated into learning contexts to assist teaching and learning. However, challenges remain how to design and incorporate such robots in an educational context. As an important part of teaching…
Service robots are increasingly deployed in public spaces, performing functional tasks such as making deliveries. To better integrate them into our social environment and enhance their adoption, we consider integrating social identities…
Responsible AI principles provide ethical guidelines for developing AI systems, yet their practical implementation in software engineering lacks thorough investigation. Therefore, this study explores the practices and challenges faced by…
This study with 40 high-school students demonstrates the high influence of a social educational robot on students' decision-making for a set of eight true-false questions on electric circuits, for which the theory had been covered in the…