Human Autonomy as a Design Principle for Socially Assistive Robots

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes designing socially assistive robots that prioritize human autonomy, especially for vulnerable populations, by defining autonomy and proposing architectural features to support it.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of human autonomy as a central design principle and outlines architectural requirements for social robots to enhance user autonomy.

Findings

Defined human autonomy in the context of social robots

Proposed architectural requirements supporting user autonomy

Described features of the Assist architecture for autonomy support

Abstract

High levels of robot autonomy are a common goal, but there is a significant risk that the greater the autonomy of the robot the lesser the autonomy of the human working with the robot. For vulnerable populations like older adults who already have a diminished level of autonomy, this is an even greater concern. We propose that human autonomy needs to be at the center of the design for socially assistive robots. Towards this goal, we define autonomy and then provide architectural requirements for social robots to support the user's autonomy. As an example of a design effort, we describe some of the features of our Assist architecture.