IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2022 - 15

Opinion
Preparing to Design Robots
for Social Contexts
Clinton J. Andrews
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 USA
 Educational programs in robotics have
focused mostly on developing science, technology,
engineering, and math skills, with recent extensions
into the arts [1]. This focus has been entirely
appropriate, until recently. Successful roboticists
have been generalists with a specialty [2] whose
careers involve both thinking and doing. Thinking
( " investigative " ) and doing ( " realistic " ) are personality
traits that, when strongly correlated, predict
success in computer science, engineering, and, by
interpolation, robotics [3]. Industry voices confirm
that roboticists need skills in systems thinking, a programming
mindset, active learning, mathematics,
science or other applied mathematics, judgment
and decision making, good cross-disciplinary communication,
technology design, complex problem
solving, and persistence [4]. This list is adequate for
many applications of robotic autonomous systems
( " robots " ).
However, robots increasingly operate among
people, and they now work alongside us in factories
and warehouses, share our streets and sidewalks,
clean our homes, and care for the most vulnerable
among us [5]. These emerging social contexts add
new requirements to the knowledge that successful
roboticists need.
* Human physiology: Roboticists need a deep
appreciation of the limits and vulnerabilities of
the human body to ensure human safety when
designing the kinematics, navigation, and feedback
systems of robots.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2022.3147530
Date of current version: 9 March 2022.
* Human cognition: Many roboticists learn basics
of human-machine interaction and usability. Far
fewer learn foundational concepts from cognitive
science on decision making by human agents,
human navigation and wayfinding, human communication,
and human interpretation of intentional
behavior that could be used to help robots
interpret human actions.
Moral reasoning: All autonomous systems may
have ethical impacts, and arguably all should be
designed to avoid unethical outcomes [6]. Designers
bear some responsibility for their designs, even in
a world where the autonomous systems they design
eventually design other autonomous systems [7].
Roboticists thus need to be able to think through the
ethical implications of their work.
Social rules: Humans are social animals who act
within elaborate structures of social constraints,
both formal and informal. We follow and expect
others to follow norms of good behavior; we establish
clear rules and codify laws; and we reproduce
social structures that outlive each of us as individual
humans. The emerging concern is about what
(not who) is acting and how [8]. Roboticists need
to incorporate into their designs a good understanding
of social rules and how those evolve to
March 2022
0278-0097/22©2022 IEEE
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2022

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