Designing everyday robots: a social science perspective on robotics

by Selma Sabanovic

Stanford University

Date

Monday, April 6, 2009

Time

2:00 p.m. — 3:00 P.M. (note special time)

Place

Informatics East (I2), Room 130

Abstract:  Social robotics and human-robot interaction (HRI) envision new roles for robots as social entities—companions, care-takers, guides and receptionists, and mediators for the increasingly complex technological environments we live in.  The development of social robots presents a combination of scientific, technical, and social challenges. I approach robot design from the perspective of a social scientist and “critical practitioner” by participating in robotics research and, especially, analyzing the resulting interdisciplinary collaborations. In my talk, I map out different modes of critical engagement of social scientists in robot design: 1) creating evaluation methods for existing robots that challenge and expand on design assumptions; 2) developing an iterative “outside-in design” process that begins with a keen appreciation for observation and reliance on existing empirical research for understanding the nuances of human interaction applied to robots, and 3) using human-robot interaction studies to validate models of social cognition. I describe results from studies I performed using various robotics platforms, including the seal robot Paro, GRACE (Graduate Robot Attending a ConferencE), the Roboceptionist, Keepon, and a robotic shadow puppeteer we developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  My work has implications for the analysis of the social, cultural and disciplinary assumptions informing the design of socially interactive technologies and the development of socially responsive and responsible social robot designs.  It also contributes to the study of how the boundaries between the social, natural, and applied science are challenged, traversed, and redefined.

Biography:  Dr. Selma Sabanovic is a Lecturer in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at Stanford University. She explores how robotic technologies are designed and perceived in different cultural contexts and studies human-robot interaction to develop and evaluate models of social cognition.  Sabanovic has published on interactional sy­­­­nchrony and nonverbal cues in human-robot interaction, the influence of culture on the design of social robots in the US and Japan, and interdisciplinary research methods in social robotics.  She is currently involved in a collaborative project between social scientists and roboticists that studies how coordination, social presence, and the attribution of human characteristics occur in human-robot interaction.  Dr. Sabanovic has been a visiting scholar at the Intelligent Systems Institute at the National Institute for Advanced Science and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba, Japan and at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.  She received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2007.

Colloquium Provided By:

the School of Informatics