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

NSF论文改进基金将用于支持社会机器人研究的研究：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、参与观察和现场文献收集，本研究旨在回答这样一个问题：作为一种技术科学实践，SR设计在社会、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）不同的社会文化和认知过程如何反映在美国和日本的SR设计实践中？2)企业是如何形成的，它们是如何调节SR设计实践的？3)如何将实验室中的SR实践转化为跨国领域的普遍科学？这里使用的“想象”的概念是指共同的世界观，使群体及其成员能够在执行共同任务时发挥作用。参与者观察（2005年3月至10月）将在位于美国匹兹堡的CMU机器人研究所的社会机器人项目和位于日本筑波的AIST智能系统研究所的PARO项目中进行。将使用的实地考察方法包括阴影，访谈，参与者观察，摄影和录音互动，以及收集与实验室相关的蜉蝣。美国和日本其他实验室的成员也将接受采访。通过第二次研究会议和公众展览以及流行文化材料（电影、小说）收集了关于社会责任研究的更多信息。这个项目将有助于科学和技术研究，通过生产原始的经验材料和理论观点的领域的动态SR。它是由以前的STS工作在实验室研究的启发，但超出了他们通常的范围，通过看在认知方面的科学实践中的各种群体结构，并利用跨两个文化独特的实验室设置多站点的案例研究方法。该项目还寻求发展一个概念和经验丰富的想象概念，因为它适用于文化上的技术科学实践，调用想象力，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，本项目旨在通过积极创造社会科学家作为参与观察者与机器人专家之间的沟通和互动，并利用研究结果为社会和文化定位的SR设计创造一种替代设计想象，从而发展参与观察和社会文化分析的概念。随着研究的进展，这项研究将通过社会机器人学家和社会科学家之间的结果循环产生广泛的影响。它将通过提出可以从多学科角度处理的SR主题来煽动和鼓励跨学科对话和研究。该研究还旨在使机器人专家更加了解社交性是如何设计到社交机器人中的，并将提供一个框架，让社会科学家和机器人专家可以共同努力，创造自反性的社交机器人设计，同时考虑到其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使研究结果得到验证和完善，同时也会影响他们的工作。该项目还鼓励在教育中使用科学研究，作为在来自各种技术和社会领域的学生和教师之间发展跨学科理解的工具。

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.