Our robots to be featured on Spencer Kelly’s 1000th and final episode of BBC Click!

Prof. Hatice presented our work on design and ethical recommendations for robotic well-being coaches at the HRI conference in Melbourne today.

My PhD research investigates how robots could be ethically designed and deployed to be accessible tools to promote users’ mental well-being.

I lead design workshops for social robots with companies and academics. These workshops teach teams how to (ethically) co-design of social robots, and how to use the Social Robot Co-Design Canvases.

The Social Robot Co-Design Canvases (available as Open Source) are a framework and tool, which enable multidisciplinary tools to design robots together with users. The tool is applicalbe in industry and academia. It enables critical examination of the purpose of the robot, as well as its ethics, form, behaviour, environment, etc.

The Finnish national library Oodi wanted a guidance robot. It was co-designed with library customers and librarians, using the Social Robot Co-Design Canvases. A decisive moment in the robot’s design was adding googly eyes – which totally changed how people interacted with it. Read about the design process and implementation of artificial robot emotions here.

Robots on Twitch? It’s more likely than you think. In this project, Finnish national media YLE wanted a new method to reach younger audiences. We co-designed and implemented a Furhat robot to be a Twitch influencer and play Minecraft with teenagers. Read our findings and (ethical) design recommendations here.

For my master’s thesis, I led the co-design and user research of a robotic tutor of assistive sign language for autistic children. Assistive sign language is an alternative communication form used by and with autistic people. Robots could help engage autistic children in sign language tutoring. This thesis examined the (ethical) co-design of such robots, and performed a pilot study. Children were found to sign accurately (at least once) with the robot, and a non-significant preference was found for the robot to use both verbal and image-based communication when explaining a signed concept.

This artwork enabled community members to have a conversation with a robot. The robot was teleoperated by fellow community members. The artwork explored the following questions: Have you ever wondered what the world looks like through the eyes of a robot? If you were a robot, what would you say to a human? As a human, what would you say to a robot in an intimate conversation?

This project explored how an open source robot could guide poker games at the start-up conference Slush.