Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnography
As more and more robots enter our social world, there is a strong need for further field studies of humanrobot interaction. Based on a two-year ethnographic study of the implementation of a South Korean socially assistive robot in Danish elderly care, this paper argues that empirical and ethnographi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2019-03-01
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| Series: | Paladyn |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/pjbr-2019-0007 |
| _version_ | 1797428885854355456 |
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| author | Blond Lasse |
| author_facet | Blond Lasse |
| author_sort | Blond Lasse |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As more and more robots enter our social world, there is a strong need for further field studies of humanrobot interaction. Based on a two-year ethnographic study of the implementation of a South Korean socially assistive robot in Danish elderly care, this paper argues that empirical and ethnographic studies will enhance the understanding of the adaptation of robots in real-life settings. Furthermore, the paper emphasizes how users and the context of use matters to this adaptation, as it is shown that roboticists are unable to control how their designs are implemented and how the sociality of social robots is inscribed by its users in practice. This paper can be seen as a contribution to long-term studies of HRI. It presents the challenges of robot adaptation in practice and discusses the limitations of the present conceptual understanding of human-robot relations. The ethnographic data presented herein encourage a move away from static and linear descriptions of the implementation process toward more contextual and relational accounts of HRI. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T09:05:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9e36cae889b44a6db25cec10b9a45860 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2081-4836 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T09:05:19Z |
| publishDate | 2019-03-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Paladyn |
| spelling | doaj.art-9e36cae889b44a6db25cec10b9a458602023-12-02T10:36:05ZengDe GruyterPaladyn2081-48362019-03-0110111712710.1515/pjbr-2019-0007pjbr-2019-0007Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnographyBlond Lasse0IT University of Copenhagen,Copenhagen, DenmarkAs more and more robots enter our social world, there is a strong need for further field studies of humanrobot interaction. Based on a two-year ethnographic study of the implementation of a South Korean socially assistive robot in Danish elderly care, this paper argues that empirical and ethnographic studies will enhance the understanding of the adaptation of robots in real-life settings. Furthermore, the paper emphasizes how users and the context of use matters to this adaptation, as it is shown that roboticists are unable to control how their designs are implemented and how the sociality of social robots is inscribed by its users in practice. This paper can be seen as a contribution to long-term studies of HRI. It presents the challenges of robot adaptation in practice and discusses the limitations of the present conceptual understanding of human-robot relations. The ethnographic data presented herein encourage a move away from static and linear descriptions of the implementation process toward more contextual and relational accounts of HRI.https://doi.org/10.1515/pjbr-2019-0007human-robot interactionsocial robotslongterm interactionrobots in the wild |
| spellingShingle | Blond Lasse Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnography Paladyn human-robot interaction social robots longterm interaction robots in the wild |
| title | Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnography |
| title_full | Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnography |
| title_fullStr | Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnography |
| title_full_unstemmed | Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnography |
| title_short | Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnography |
| title_sort | studying robots outside the lab hri as ethnography |
| topic | human-robot interaction social robots longterm interaction robots in the wild |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/pjbr-2019-0007 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT blondlasse studyingrobotsoutsidethelabhriasethnography |