Freud, Frankenstein and our fear of robots: projection in our cultural perception of technology

This paper examines why robots are so often presented as monstrous in the popular media (e.g. film, newspapers), regardless of the intended applications of the robots themselves. The figure of the robot monster is examined in its historical and cultural specificity—that is, as a direct descendent of monsters that we have grown accustomed to since the nineteenth century: Frankenstein, Mr. Hyde, vampires, zombies, etc. Using the psychoanalytic notion of projection, these monsters are understood as representing human anxieties regarding the dehumanising tendencies of science and reason, and regarding a perceived transformation in human nature over the last two hundred years. In analysing these anxieties, we can therefore gain insight into the fears—genuine or naïve—that the public harbours towards new advancements in technology; these insights can then inform those working with and designing living machines as to how their inventions might be received

Robots, AI, and the question of 'e-persons' - a panel at the 2017 Science in Public conference, 10-12 July 2017

In response to EU draft legislation on robots and artificial intelligence - which included the headline-grabbing proposals to introduce rights for 'e-persons' and necessitating that robots come equipped with a 'kill switch' - a diverse group of experts and academics gathered in Sheffield as part of the Science in Public 2017 conference. Panellists and the audience discussed the origins and implications of the ideas behind the EU initiative, and more specifically, whether robots or artificial intelligence qualifies for right as 'persons', and how the EU proposal imagines robots and artificial intelligence in particular, historically-contingent ways that influence or distort our present discussions and attempts to legislate on the future use and development of technology

Ethical principles of robotics

This Connection Science special issue, published in two parts as volume 29/2 and 29/3, addresses ethical and societal issues in robotics. In this editorial, we explain the background to the special issue and consider its position within the on-going and increasingly high-profile debate about the future impacts of advanced robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) and the ethical obligations of the community involved in robotics research and development

Ethical principles of robotics

This Connection Science special issue, published in two parts as volume 29/2 and 29/3, addresses ethical and societal issues in robotics. In this editorial, we explain the background to the special issue and consider its position within the on-going and increasingly high-profile debate about the future impacts of advanced robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) and the ethical obligations of the community involved in robotics research and development

Designing robot personalities for human-robot symbiotic interaction in an educational context

The Expressive Agents for Symbiotic Education and Learning project explores human-robot symbiotic interaction with the aim to understand the development of symbiosis over long-term tutoring interactions. The final EASEL system will be built upon the neurobiologically grounded architecture - Distributed Adaptive Control. In this paper, we present the design of an interaction scenario to support development of the DAC, in the context of a synthetic tutoring assistant. Our humanoid robot, capable of life-like simulated facial expressions, will interact with children in a public setting to teach them about exercise and energy. We discuss the range of measurements used to explore children’s responses during, and experiences of, interaction with a social, expressive robot

Congratulations, It’s a Boy! Bench-Marking Children’s Perceptions of the Robokind Zeno-R25

This paper explores three fundamental attributes of the Robokind Zeno-R25 (its status as person or machine, its ‘gender’, and intensity of its simulated facial expressions) and their impact on children’s perceptions of the robot, using a one-sample study design. Results from a sample of 37 children indicate that the robot is perceived as being a mix of person and machine, but also strongly as a male figure. Children could label emotions of the robot’s simulated facial-expressions but perceived intensities of these expressions varied. The findings demonstrate the importance of establishing fundamentals in user views towards social robots in supporting advanced arguments of social human-robot interaction

Towards a wearable interface for immersive telepresence in robotics

In this paper we present an architecture for the study of telepresence, immersion and human-robot interaction. The architecture is built around a wearable interface that provides the human user with visual, audio and tactile feedback from a remote location. We have chosen to interface the system with the iCub humanoid robot, as it mimics many human sensory modalities, including vision (with gaze control) and tactile feedback, which offers a richly immersive experience for the human user. Our wearable interface allows human participants to observe and explore a remote location, while also being able to communicate verbally with others located in the remote environment. Our approach has been tested from a variety of distances, including university and business premises, and using wired, wireless and Internet based connections, using data compression to maintain the quality of the experience for the user. Initial testing has shown the wearable interface to be a robust system of immersive teleoperation, with a myriad of potential applications, particularly in social networking, gaming and entertainment

Teleport -- variable autonomy across platforms

Robotics is a very diverse field with robots of different sizes and sensory configurations created with the purpose of carrying out different tasks. Different robots and platforms each require their own software ecosystem and are coded with specific algorithms which are difficult to translate to other robots