Robots in Public Spaces

In this module, we will investigate how to apply a Value Sensitive Design (VSD) framework to develop responsible use policies for introducing an emergent technology into a diverse community of stakeholders. The goal is help students to investigate different stakeholder roles, values, priorities, and the ethical/legal responsibilities of computing professionals when conducting human-robot interaction research with robots in public spaces.

Summary

In late 2019, a quadruped agile robot, named Spot, was introduced by the robotics company Boston Dynamics for lease to the public. Spot found quick commercial success in industry and social media fame with its sophisticated computer vision enabled inspection and environmental data collection capacity as well as its hypermobility. Spot was also leased by non-commercial organizations such as metropolitan police departments that integrated Spot into various aspects of their operations.

This module examines a body of narratives that illustrate the conflicting stakeholder perspectives about this technology and its use in public spaces. It also presents an ethical design framework and professional codes of ethics that could shape help to shape community policies around the responsible design and deployment of potentially harmful emerging technologies. The responsible use of these robots can be shaped and regulated by the designers, engineers, and computer scientists. In this module, we will explore potential approaches to illustrate how this type of technology could be proactively deployed responsibly using existing methods and guidelines.

Beginning of Monday class:

Please Answer this module pre-assessment - - approx. 8 minutes.
When you have completed the survey, take a few minutes to review the slides on the Value Sensitive Design (VSD) framework and methods.

Some narratives to start us off: Kate Darling, Black Mirror:Metalhead clip, Spot Dance

During our Monday class

The goal of this activity is for you to consider the deployment of a agile robot in a community through a variety of stakeholder perspectives. Following the VSD framework, we are going to identify the stakeholders in our own campus community and their various perspectives, values, and priorities around this issue.
Define Key Concepts and Terms, Situation / Context.
In stakeholder groups, identify specific values in relation to Spot's use in research and teaching on campus (there may be competing values within stakeholder groups.)
Each group will review a relevant narratives around responsible use policies to start drafting a list of guidelines and policies to present to the community from stakeholder role and value perspective.

Narratives

Group 1: Colby College Drone Club policy and Colby College Policy Doc for UAS

Group 2: Boston Dynamics Ethics policy and CNBC story on Boston Dynamics

Group 3: Research on regulating use of robots in public spaces (Article 1, Article 2, Article 3)

Group 4: ACM Code of Ethics and IEEE Code of Ethics and HRI code of ethics (proposed)

Group 5: Legal perspective on robots in public spaces

Before our Wed. class

Read: Minnesota DOT Policy on Delivery Robots

Read: On the Practicalities of Robots in Public Spaces

Additional Narratives:

Bonnemains,V., Saurel, C., and Tessier, C. (2018). Embedded ethics: Some technical and ethical challenges. Ethics and Information Technology, Springer Verlag.

Bouman, A., Ginting, M.F, Alatur, N., Palieri,M. Fan, D.D., Touma, T. et al. (2020) Autonomous Spot: long-range autonomous exploration of extreme environments with legged locomotion. In International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) pp. 2518-2525. IEEE.

Brown, D. (December 2020). The U.S. is entering a robotic future. Washington Post.

Bushwick, S. (May 2021). The NYPD’s robot dog was a really bad idea: Here’s what went wrong. Scientific American,

Herman. A. (December 2017). ‘Black Mirror’ watch: Talking to David Slade, the director of ’Metalhead’, Ringer,

Jarmanning. A. (November 2019) Massachusetts state police tested out Boston Dynamics’ Spot the robot dog, civil liberties advocates want to know more, WBUR.

Knight, W. (February 2021). Boston Dynamics’ robot dog is now armed - in the name of art. Wired,,

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