IP Review Autumn 2017

12 IP review autumn 2017 In the near future however, it is expected that robots will play a much greater role in our daily lives. These “social robots” will be different from their industrial colleagues, being designed to interact with people in a natural, interpersonal manner – often to achieve social-emotional goals in diverse applications such as education, healthcare, quality of life, entertainment and communication. The term “care robots” is also used for partially or fully automated physical machines that are designed for elderly care or to engage with people with physical or mental disabilities. Given that robots have limited perceptual, cognitive and behavioural abilities compared to humans, how can a robot be “social”? The answer rests on the quality of the interaction that the robot can offer a human. For example, social cues like nodding when someone speaks might be enough to create a social interaction. Responses of this kind are rich in meaning and may convey a lot to a user, but they do not necessarily require sophisticated technology. This means that to be “social”, a robot does not have to be anthropomorphic or behave like an artificial human. There is even research evidence suggesting that “human-ness” or familiarity may have detrimental effects on the quality of human-robot interaction, as it can foster unrealistic expectations in the (human) user. Research suggests that adding social behavior characteristics to simple and functional robotic devices can greatly impact a person’s willingness to adopt a technology and even demonstrates promising outcomes in activities related to user motivation and therapy. Rise of the social robots Robots have been working alongside humans in industrial environments for decades. These robots have been programmed to perform repetitive, dull or dangerous tasks that require accuracy, flexibility and strength, in lieu of human labour. Their purpose has traditionally been to lower production time and cost as well as to offer standardised quality of products. Social Robotics