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TAS in context and changing environments
TAS in context and changing environments
We introduced some examples of robots and TAS and asked the students what environments they would expect to find them in. These included hospitals and airports and we unpicked what jobs they might have in these spaces, while also thinking about what they definitely could not (or should not!) do. One example included a robot for a medical setting and students talked about how it could provide wound care but they’d be more reluctant to see it performing surgery unless it was part of a team where there was an emphasis on teamwork and communicating about decisions together.
Introducing Zeno aka 'Spikey Mikey'
Introducing Zeno aka 'Spikey Mikey'
As part of immersing ourselves in conversations of TAS, we introduced two robots. We all took it in turns to have a go at one of the functions and importantly, this was not a scenario where as academic researchers knew about the functionality, intended role or expected outcome for each robot - we all learnt and explored the technology together.
The first robot was an expressive soft humanoid robot named ‘zeno’ (you can find out more about Zeno here).
Within our collaborative workshop, there was some unease at zeno given its humanoid aesthetic. One of the students renamed it ‘Spikey Mikey, arguably due to its spikey hair or potentially uneasy aesthetic. One of our student co-researchers really did not like zeno and thought it would harm us and end the world. This relates to the theory about robots and their likeness with human features - the ‘uncanny valley’.
Participation and interaction with zeno varied across our co-researchers. The robot has a touch screen on its chest where you can select interactions and reactions. We played with some facial expressions that Zeno could do through moving its body to be an elephant and give a robot dance (which prompted conversations around dancing again and more laughter!). We explored possibilities for a robot like this within our everyday lives and talked about the size of the robot and whether it could match our bodies and our needs to do things collaboratively. The touch screen design was also not accessible for all of our student co-researchers, but we worked together to explore the functions and discuss how the robot might be fun, interesting or useful for our everyday lives.
Introducing Miro
Introducing Miro
Mindful of the hesitance of many of our team and its limited functions, we also turned to our next robot, ‘Miro’ (you can read more about miro here). The choice and variation of multiple technologies was a deliberate choice to account for preference, accessibility and flexibility within our workshops.
Our student co-researchers were much fonder of this robot and talked about what they liked about it and possibilities for a robot like this in their everyday lives. We talked about taking it on holiday with us. This led us on to talk about the importance of aesthetics and design such as being waterproof, soft and fluffy, being safe to use, a good battery life, listening and language.
We thought about different contexts in which the robots might be used - comparing it to ‘spikey mikey’ (Zeno) who our co-researchers stated would be no good at boxing and dancing because it wasn’t tall enough to meet their height.
Miro might be used in homes to keep an eye on others or act as a guard dog or look out for family members who might fall and need medical assistance. We discussed what functions it had to enable it to do these tasks. One of the students compared the Miro to an assistive guide dog with its ability to sense movement and sound and we talked about how this relates in everyday life.
Much of these contributions centred around care, companionship and how technologies of these kinds might situate themselves within the context of established relationships and networks in our student co-researchers' everyday lives.
Asking university researchers important questions
Asking university researchers important questions
At the end of workshop three, we left some time to open up our workshop for our student co-researchers to decide what they’d like to ask our academic researchers in the spirit of co-production, equal distribution of knowledge, exchange and reciprocity. This included questions around research, universities, technology and robots. Our student co-researchers were interested in:
how much might robots like these (Miro and Zeno) cost? how much are they worth to us?
what are the most expensive robots in universities?
how do you get into university?
whats the oldest robot to exist?
how much do you earn working at a university?
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