March 11–14, 2024, Boulder, CO, USA | Hannah R. M. Pelikan, Stuart Reeves, Marina N. Cantarutti
The paper "Encountering Autonomous Robots on Public Streets" by Hannah R. M. Pelikan, Stuart Reeves, and Marina N. Cantarutti explores the interactions between autonomous robots and human users in public spaces. The authors adopt an ethnomethodological approach, using video recordings to study how robots are embedded in urban environments and how they are accommodated by the people who live and work there. They argue that the most common form of interaction with robots is subtle and often goes unnoticed, ranging from fleeting interactions to virtual ignoring. The study focuses on delivery robots, specifically those deployed by Starship Technologies, and examines how these robots navigate and interact with the streetscape, including various objects and people on the street. The authors highlight the contingent nature of the streetscape and the accommodation work done by street inhabitants to enable the robots' passage. They emphasize the importance of studying robots in their whole deployment context and the role of "incidentally co-present persons" in shaping human-robot interactions. The paper contributes to the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) by providing a nuanced understanding of the mundane and subtle interactions that occur in public spaces, which are often overlooked in existing research. The authors suggest that HRI researchers should pay more attention to these implicit interactions and consider the social and practical contexts in which robots operate.The paper "Encountering Autonomous Robots on Public Streets" by Hannah R. M. Pelikan, Stuart Reeves, and Marina N. Cantarutti explores the interactions between autonomous robots and human users in public spaces. The authors adopt an ethnomethodological approach, using video recordings to study how robots are embedded in urban environments and how they are accommodated by the people who live and work there. They argue that the most common form of interaction with robots is subtle and often goes unnoticed, ranging from fleeting interactions to virtual ignoring. The study focuses on delivery robots, specifically those deployed by Starship Technologies, and examines how these robots navigate and interact with the streetscape, including various objects and people on the street. The authors highlight the contingent nature of the streetscape and the accommodation work done by street inhabitants to enable the robots' passage. They emphasize the importance of studying robots in their whole deployment context and the role of "incidentally co-present persons" in shaping human-robot interactions. The paper contributes to the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) by providing a nuanced understanding of the mundane and subtle interactions that occur in public spaces, which are often overlooked in existing research. The authors suggest that HRI researchers should pay more attention to these implicit interactions and consider the social and practical contexts in which robots operate.