scholarly journals Service robots for affective labor: a sociology of labor perspective

AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Dobrosovestnova ◽  
Glenda Hannibal ◽  
Tim Reinboth

AbstractProfit-oriented service sectors such as tourism, hospitality, and entertainment are increasingly looking at how professional service robots can be integrated into the workplace to perform socio-cognitive tasks that were previously reserved for humans. This is a work in which social and labor sciences recognize the principle role of emotions. However, the models and narratives of emotions that drive research, design, and deployment of service robots in human–robot interaction differ considerably from how emotions are framed in the sociology of labor and feminist studies of service work. In this paper, we explore these tensions through the concepts of affective and emotional labor, and outline key insights these concepts offer for the design and evaluation of professional service robots. Taken together, an emphasis on interactionist approaches to emotions and on the demands of affective labor, leads us to argue that service employees are under-represented in existing studies in human–robot interaction. To address this, we outline how participatory design and value-sensitive design approaches can be applied as complimentary methodological frameworks that include service employees as vital stakeholders.

AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Weiss ◽  
Katta Spiel

AbstractPutting laypeople in an active role as direct expert contributors in the design of service robots becomes more and more prominent in the research fields of human–robot interaction (HRI) and social robotics (SR). Currently, though, HRI is caught in a dilemma of how to create meaningful service robots for human social environments, combining expectations shaped by popular media with technology readiness. We recapitulate traditional stakeholder involvement, including two cases in which new intelligent robots were conceptualized and realized for close interaction with humans. Thereby, we show how the robot narrative (impacted by science fiction, the term robot itself, and assumptions on human-like intelligence) together with aspects of power balancing stakeholders, such as hardware constraints and missing perspectives beyond primary users, and the adaptivity of robots through machine learning that creates unpredictability, pose specific challenges for participatory design processes in HRI. We conclude with thoughts on a way forward for the HRI community in developing a culture of participation that considers humans when conceptualizing, building, and using robots.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-73
Author(s):  
Sofia Thunberg ◽  
Tom Ziemke

AbstractInteraction between humans and robots will benefit if people have at least a rough mental model of what a robot knows about the world and what it plans to do. But how do we design human-robot interactions to facilitate this? Previous research has shown that one can change people’s mental models of robots by manipulating the robots’ physical appearance. However, this has mostly not been done in a user-centred way, i.e. without a focus on what users need and want. Starting from theories of how humans form and adapt mental models of others, we investigated how the participatory design method, PICTIVE, can be used to generate design ideas about how a humanoid robot could communicate. Five participants went through three phases based on eight scenarios from the state-of-the-art tasks in the RoboCup@Home social robotics competition. The results indicate that participatory design can be a suitable method to generate design concepts for robots’ communication in human-robot interaction.


Author(s):  
Keun-chang Kwak ◽  
Do-hyung Kim ◽  
Byoung-youl Song ◽  
Dae-ha Lee ◽  
Soo-young Chi ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (22) ◽  
pp. 7992
Author(s):  
Jinseok Woo ◽  
Yasuhiro Ohyama ◽  
Naoyuki Kubota

This paper presents a robot partner development platform based on smart devices. Humans communicate with others based on the basic motivations of human cooperation and have communicative motives based on social attributes. Understanding and applying these communicative motives become important in the development of socially-embedded robot partners. Therefore, it is becoming more important to develop robots that can be applied according to needs while taking these human communication elements into consideration. The role of a robot partner is more important in not only on the industrial sector but also in households. However, it seems that it will take time to disseminate robots. In the field of service robots, the development of robots according to various needs is important and the system integration of hardware and software becomes crucial. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a robot partner development platform for human-robot interaction. Firstly, we propose a modularized architecture of robot partners using a smart device to realize a flexible update based on the re-usability of hardware and software modules. In addition, we show examples of implementing a robot system using the proposed architecture. Next, we focus on the development of various robots using the modular robot partner system. Finally, we discuss the effectiveness of the proposed robot partner system through social implementation and experiments.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merlind Knof ◽  
Judith S. Heinisch ◽  
Jérôme Kirchhoff ◽  
Niyati Rawal ◽  
Klaus David ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Wendy A. Rogers ◽  
Travis Kadylak ◽  
Megan A. Bayles

Objective We reviewed human–robot interaction (HRI) participatory design (PD) research with older adults. The goal was to identify methods used, determine their value for design of robots with older adults, and provide guidance for best practices. Background Assistive robots may promote aging-in-place and quality of life for older adults. However, the robots must be designed to meet older adults’ specific needs and preferences. PD and other user-centered methods may be used to engage older adults in the robot development process to accommodate their needs and preferences and to assure usability of emergent assistive robots. Method This targeted review of HRI PD studies with older adults draws on a detailed review of 26 articles. Our assessment focused on the HRI methods and their utility for use with older adults who have a range of needs and capabilities. Results Our review highlighted the importance of using mixed methods and including multiple stakeholders throughout the design process. These approaches can encourage mutual learning (to improve design by developers and to increase acceptance by users). We identified key phases used in HRI PD workshops (e.g., initial interview phase, series of focus groups phase, and presentation phase). These approaches can provide inspiration for future efforts. Conclusion HRI PD strategies can support designers in developing assistive robots that meet older adults’ needs, capabilities, and preferences to promote acceptance. More HRI research is needed to understand potential implications for aging-in-place. PD methods provide a promising approach.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Webster ◽  
David Western ◽  
Dejanira Araiza-Illan ◽  
Clare Dixon ◽  
Kerstin Eder ◽  
...  

We present an approach for the verification and validation (V&V) of robot assistants in the context of human–robot interactions, to demonstrate their trustworthiness through corroborative evidence of their safety and functional correctness. Key challenges include the complex and unpredictable nature of the real world in which assistant and service robots operate, the limitations on available V&V techniques when used individually, and the consequent lack of confidence in the V&V results. Our approach, called corroborative V&V, addresses these challenges by combining several different V&V techniques; in this paper we use formal verification (model checking), simulation-based testing, and user validation in experiments with a real robot. This combination of approaches allows V&V of the human–robot interaction task at different levels of modeling detail and thoroughness of exploration, thus overcoming the individual limitations of each technique. We demonstrate our approach through a handover task, the most critical part of a complex cooperative manufacturing scenario, for which we propose safety and liveness requirements to verify and validate. Should the resulting V&V evidence present discrepancies, an iterative process between the different V&V techniques takes place until corroboration between the V&V techniques is gained from refining and improving the assets (i.e., system and requirement models) to represent the human–robot interaction task in a more truthful manner. Therefore, corroborative V&V affords a systematic approach to “meta-V&V,” in which different V&V techniques can be used to corroborate and check one another, increasing the level of certainty in the results of V&V.


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