Essay
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
The Social Robotics Gamble
Version 1
: Received: 24 August 2024 / Approved: 25 August 2024 / Online: 26 August 2024 (08:25:22 CEST)
How to cite: Sequeira, J. S.; González, Á. C.; Castillo, J. C.; Martin, F. A.; Salichs, M. A. The Social Robotics Gamble. Preprints 2024, 2024081798. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.1798.v1 Sequeira, J. S.; González, Á. C.; Castillo, J. C.; Martin, F. A.; Salichs, M. A. The Social Robotics Gamble. Preprints 2024, 2024081798. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.1798.v1
Abstract
Will human societies accommodate social robots, given the current development rate? Are we under a novelty effect? Can (and should) social robots compete with intelligent agents (e.g., software robots) for the attention of humans? Will the current development of machine learning be the motor of social robotics? What kind of robotics products and culture can we expect that will emerge? These are relevant questions to assess the sustainability of social robots and how they will change business practices and lifestyle. Speculative/exploratory arguments on these topics are possible and have been mostly left out of research papers. This, however, results in an unconventional structure where the novelty comes from the questioning of the role of Social Robotics that has not been duly addressed in the literature. The paper raises questions and (i) presents arguments supporting sustainability grounded on experiments in real-world scenarios, and (ii) identifies challenges according to multiple viewpoints. These are questions for which assertive answers are not found in the literature. Besides the answers to the above questions, the conclusions point to pathways we believe social robotics can evolve, e.g., incorporating maximal knowledge on how humans work.
Keywords
Social Robots; Human-Robot Interaction; Humanisation; Companion Robots; Lifestyle; Sustainability
Subject
Engineering, Other
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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