Robots for Communities

Workshop at HRI 2026

Half-day workshop (Morning) on March 16, 2026

@Heriot-Watt University/National Robotarium, Edinburgh, Scotland

In-person attendance required

This workshop on Robots for Communities explores how robots can serve as shared social resources that support the collective well-being of communities. While robots have traditionally been created to serve corporations or individuals, leading human–robot interaction research to focus largely on individuals or small groups, communities remain a crucial yet underexplored context for robotics. Understanding robots in community settings requires an interdisciplinary lens that integrates robotics, design, the social sciences, humanities, and community practice. Rather than emphasizing the negative consequences of large-scale deployment, our focus is on the active, positive roles robots might play in shaping communities. Central to this vision is viewing robots not as personal possessions but as shared resources, with unique affordances that enable them to enrich community experiences in ways other technologies cannot. The workshop seeks to bridge technology-centered and community-centered perspectives to promote dialogue across disciplines. By bringing these perspectives together, we aim to establish an interdisciplinary agenda for the design, evaluation, and deployment of robots as positive forces for well-being and cohesion within communities.

Topics

We welcome contributions and discussions on (but not limited to):

Lessons from adjacent fields, drawing on design, urban studies, civic technology, and community informatics to inform community-scale HRI.
Frameworks and methods that guide the study and design of robots for communities.
Metrics for communities capturing collective behavior, social processes, and shared needs.
Evaluation at scale through approaches that assess long-term performance and impact beyond individuals or small groups.
Roles of community robots, ranging from social roles (enabler, facilitator, community organizer, social worker) to non-social roles (repetitive and mundane tasks such as cleaning or logistics in community spaces).
Community and societal impact, considering cultural, social, economic, and environmental implications.
Equity, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring fair access, avoiding inequities, and supporting underrepresented groups.
Governance and participation, including models for ownership, stewardship (long-term care and responsibility), and participatory decision-making, particularly in polarized and contested settings.
Life cycle of community robots, including deployment, maintenance, obsolescence, and long-term sustainability of robots embedded in communal contexts.
Technical and ethical challenges, including privacy, data governance, safety, robustness, and resource constraints in real-world community environments.
Applications and case studies, such as robots in libraries, schools, community centers, healthcare facilities, etc., emphasizing proactive community building and social value.
Transition from personal to communal robots, highlighting shifting needs, values, and challenges as robots move from individual to collective settings.