Since the very inception of robotics, the specter of robot power has been a central concern in human-robot relations. In science fiction books, plays and movies, the prospect of these mechanical servants becoming robot overlords is a recurring theme. The concerns about robot labor, about robot power, about the relative social status of robots speak metaphorically to concerns about loss of control and the ways in which technology disrupts the social structures and institutions in our lives. As robotics progress from science fiction to day-to-day reality, the drama of power and status in the human-robot will begin to enter our everyday lives. While much attention has been focused on the people who would be displayed by automated agents, not much thought has been paid to what the effects of robots will be on the people who work around robots, with robots and on robots.

Research in the space of human-robot interactions indicate that people are as sensitive to the social dynamics of power between people and robots as they are to the dynamics between people--perhaps more. Drawing examples from my own research and that of others, I illustrate how the dynamics of structure, class and power affect people’s expectations for machines, present design guidelines that emerge from research findings, and consider some of the moral and philosophical implications of robot power.