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Robots in the city: Discovering implicit social expectations for urban robots

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  • Date
    10 March 2026
    Timeframe
    17:00 - 17:00 CET Geneva
    Duration
    60 minutes
    • Days
      Hours
      Min
      Sec

    Robots are increasingly being deployed in urban spaces, for example, to deliver food, to clean or vacuum, or to help maintain safety. Robots can help to perform tasks and gather information about the changing environment and habitat of the city to benefit its citizens. In return, cities, in all its grit and glory, provide a complex and rich context for understanding the challenges autonomous technologies face when deployed in the real world. However, robots can only be safely and appropriately deployed in urban environments with an understanding of the social norms which govern public interaction in such spaces. 
     
    This talk discusses current developments in the field of urban robot interaction, with a focus on field experiments with autonomous vehicles and robots. People implicitly expect robots to know about and conform to social interaction scripts that roboticists often fail to anticipate. Field experiment methods for human robot interaction in urban environments help to address blind spots, contingent interaction and contextual variation.

     

    Session Objectives:

    By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

    • List examples of robots deployed in urban environments 
    • Describe challenges faced by robots deployed in cities
    • Apply social norms as guidelines for socially appropriate robot behavior in public

    Recommended Mastery Level / Prerequisites:

    This webinar should be accessible to anyone.

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