Spatial Robotic Experiences as a Ground for Future HRI Speculations

By Dave Murray-Rust, Maria Luce Lupetti, Alessandro Ianniello, Matt Gorbet, Aadjan Van Der Helm, Liliane Filthaut, Adrian Chîu, and Philip Beesley

TU Delft FRAIM, TU Delft Interactive Environment Minor, Gorbet Design, The Living Architecture Systems Group

Abstract – This work illustrates how artistic robotic systems can provide a reservoir of unfamiliarity and a basis for speculation, to open the field toward new ways of thinking about HRI. We reflect on a collaborative project between design students, a media art studio, and design researchers working with the baggage handling department of a strategic European airport. Engaging with the industrial context, we developed ‘meta-behaviours’ – abstracted ideas of processes carried out on the worksite and passed these over to the students who translated them into robotic enactions based on hardware and a form language developed by the media art studio. The resulting visit experience challenges the audience to decode the installation in terms of meta-behaviours and their possible relations to industrial HRI. We used this to reflect on the value of conducting artistic and speculative work in HRI and to distil actionable recommendations for future research.

Dave Murray-Rust, Maria Luce Lupetti, Alessandro Ianniello, Matt Gorbet, Aadjan van der Helm, Lilian Filthaut, Adrian Chîu, and Philip Beesley. 2024. Spatial Robotic Experiences as a Ground for Future HRI Speculations. In Boulder ‘24: HRI ‘24 Companion, March 11–14, 2024, Boulder, CO, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA. 14 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3610978.3640793