Dissertation Research: Imagining Robotics: Cultural and cognitive perspectives on the scientific practice of social robot design

论文研究：想象机器人：社交机器人设计科学实践的文化和认知视角

• 批准号: 0522630
• 负责人: Linnda Caporael
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-08-15 至 2007-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0522630&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Imagining; Robotics; Cultural

Project summaryNSF dissertation improvement funds will be used to support a study of social robotics research: scientific practice of designing and constructing machines able to engage in social interaction with humans. Through interviews, participant observation, and on-site document collection the study aims to answer the question: How is SR design, as a techno-scientific practice, socially, culturally and cognitively situated, constituted and imagined? An answer will be derived from the following sub-questions: 1) How are different socio-cultural and cognitive processes reflected in the practice of SR design in the U.S. and Japan? 2) How are imaginaries formed, and how do they mediate the practice of SR design? 3) How is the practice of SR in the lab translated into a universal science in the transnational domain? The concept of "the imaginary" used here refers to shared world-views that enable groups and their members to function in performing common tasks. Participant observation (March-October 2005) will be performed at the Social Robots Project located at the CMU Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. and the PARO Project at the AIST Intelligent Systems Research Institute in Tsukuba, Japan. The fieldwork methods that will be used include shadowing, interviewing, participant observation, photographing and tape-recording interactions, and the collection of ephemera relevant to the labs. Members of other labs in the U.S and Japan will also be interviewed. Additional information on SR research has been gathered through secondary research conference and public exhibition attendance, and popular culture materials (films, novels).Intellectual merit. This project will contribute to science and technology studies byproducing original empirical material and theoretical perspectives on the dynamics of the field of SR .It is inspired by previous STS work in lab studies, but goes beyond their usual scope by looking at the cognitive aspects of science as practiced within various group structures and utilizing a multi-sited case study approach across two culturally distinctive lab settings. The project also seeks to develop a conceptually and empirically enriched concept of the imaginary as it applies to culturally situated techno-scientific practice, invoking imagination, vision and a socially constructed shared worldview as part of the process of science. A further contribution will be the use of the core configurations framework to emphasize the significance of interaction and its social structure, rather than roles, in the social and cognitive behavior of humans and machines. Finally, the project aims to develop the conception of participant observation and socio-cultural analysis by actively creating communication and interaction between the social scientist as participant observer with roboticists, and using the results of the study to create an alternative design imaginary for socially and culturally situated SR design.Broader impacts. The study will have a broad impact through the circulation of resultsamong social roboticists and social scientists as the study progresses. It will instigate and encourage interdisciplinary dialogue and research by bringing out themes in SR that can be approached from multiple disciplinary perspectives. The study also aims to make roboticists more aware of how sociality is designed into social robots, and will provide a framework in which social scientists and roboticists can work together to create reflexive social robot designs, taking into account the social impacts and cultural contexts of their applications. Feedback from social roboticists will enable validation and refinement of findings while also influencing their work. The project also encourages the use of SR in education as a tool for developing interdisciplinary understanding among students and instructors from a variety of technical and social fields.

nsf论文改进基金将用于支持社会机器人研究：设计和建造能够与人类进行社会互动的机器的科学实践。通过访谈、参与观察和现场文件收集，本研究旨在回答以下问题：SR设计作为一种技术科学实践，在社会、文化和认知上是如何定位、构成和想象的？答案将从以下子问题中得出：1)在美国和日本的SR设计实践中，不同的社会文化和认知过程是如何反映的？2)想象是如何形成的，又是如何中介SR设计实践的？3)如何将实验室的SR实践转化为跨国领域的普遍科学？这里使用的“想象”概念指的是使团队及其成员能够执行共同任务的共享世界观。参与者观察（2005年3月至10月）将在美国匹兹堡CMU机器人研究所的社会机器人项目和日本筑波AIST智能系统研究所的PARO项目中进行。野外工作的方法包括跟随、访谈、参与观察、拍摄和录音互动，以及收集与实验室相关的短暂记录。美国和日本其他实验室的成员也将接受采访。通过二次研究会议和公开展览以及流行文化材料（电影、小说）收集了关于SR研究的其他信息。知识价值。该项目将通过提供有关SR领域动态的原始经验材料和理论观点，为科学和技术研究做出贡献。它的灵感来自于之前STS在实验室研究中的工作，但超越了他们通常的范围，通过在不同的群体结构中观察科学的认知方面，并利用跨两个文化独特的实验室环境的多地点案例研究方法。该项目还寻求发展一个概念和经验丰富的想象概念，因为它适用于文化背景下的技术科学实践，唤起想象力、愿景和社会构建的共享世界观，作为科学过程的一部分。进一步的贡献将是使用核心配置框架来强调交互及其社会结构的重要性，而不是角色，在人类和机器的社会和认知行为中。最后，该项目旨在通过积极创造社会科学家作为参与者观察者与机器人专家之间的沟通和互动，发展参与性观察和社会文化分析的概念，并利用研究结果为社会和文化背景下的SR设计创造另一种设计想象。更广泛的影响。随着研究的进展，该研究将通过结果在社会机器人学家和社会科学家之间的传播产生广泛的影响。它将激发和鼓励跨学科的对话和研究，通过提出可以从多个学科的角度来处理的SR主题。这项研究还旨在使机器人专家更加了解社交机器人是如何被设计成社交机器人的，并将提供一个框架，在这个框架中，社会科学家和机器人专家可以一起工作，创造出反射性的社交机器人设计，考虑到它们的应用的社会影响和文化背景。来自社会机器人专家的反馈将能够验证和改进发现，同时也会影响他们的工作。该项目还鼓励在教育中使用SR，作为一种工具，促进来自各种技术和社会领域的学生和教师之间的跨学科理解。