Imagine Living with Robots

Social robots are poised to become a part of daily life soon. Despite many advances in research, development and design, the potentials of social robots to enhance life and work are still open for exploration. Driven by the industry and regulated by the government, most technological developments and applications come to ordinary citizens ready-made. In other words, citizens are mostly passive consumers. However, this well-known fact can no longer be accepted when facing social robots. The more powerful is the technology, the greater are the needs for the citizens and the professionals to participate in driving its development. In the age of artificial intelligence, students must be equipped to understand, conceive, and evaluate how they might integrate social robots and other powerful technologies in daily life and at work. To deal with technologies creatively and critically is one of the key future skills. Here, creative and critical thinking are not considered to be specialized skills but rather habits that can be cultivated by anyone through practice. In this course, as a part of a research project, students will employ the method ‘Rip+Mix’ to practise imagining and evaluating future scenarios of living with robots for a particular user group.