Concerns and Values in Human-Robot Interactions: A Focus on Social Robotics

TL;DR

This paper reviews key concerns and values in human-robot interactions across social contexts, introduces a web tool for aligning robot design with human values, and evaluates its utility in guiding ethical robot development.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive list of human values in HRI, validated by experts, and introduces the HRI Value Compass tool to assist researchers in ethical robot design.

Findings

Identified key concerns in social robotics through a scoping review.

Validated a list of values relevant to HRI with ethics experts.

Developed and pilot-tested the HRI Value Compass web tool.

Abstract

Robots, as AI with physical instantiation, inhabit our social and physical world, where their actions have both social and physical consequences, posing challenges for researchers when designing social robots. This study starts with a scoping review to identify discussions and potential concerns arising from interactions with robotic systems in the context of healthcare, education, and private homes. Two focus groups of technology ethics experts then validated a comprehensive list of key topics and values in human-robot interaction (HRI) literature in these contexts. These insights were integrated into the HRI Value Compass web tool, to help HRI researchers identify these values in robot design. The tool was evaluated in a pilot study. This work benefits the HRI community by highlighting key concerns in human-robot interactions and providing an instrument to help researchers design robots that align with human values, ensuring future robotic systems adhere to these values in social applications.