Workshop | Workshop on Designing and Evaluating Social Robots for Public Settings

Abstract | Social robotics has become increasingly important in HRI, yet robots are often still designed and evaluated using traditional lab-based experimental methods that derive from the AI roots of robotics as a field. Increasingly however, robotics researchers are considering the value of multi-disciplinary design and evaluation methods, including the mixed-methods lab-based designs used traditionally within the social sciences along with ‘in the wild’ testing through field deployments in public settings. In this workshop, we will explore the challenges to both robotic design and evaluation methods that these hybrid methodologies create, and how these challenges might be harnessed to promote a more ‘human-centred’ approach to HRI. This workshop will bring together a multidisciplinary group of researchers to identify and address key challenges to the future study of social robotics in both lab and field, and will include guest speakers with backgrounds in a range of methodological approaches to HRI.