Johanna Seibt, Aarhus University, DK

In this presentation I sketch the basic motivations for “Integrative Social Robotics” (ISR), as a new paradigm for how to approach research, design, and development of social robotics application that are culturally sustainable. I argue that social robotics saddles us with normative-regulatory and descriptive questions that--given the rapid pace of the robotics industry--must be treated. Currently HRI research investigates what social robots can do and robo-ethicists deliberate afterwards what robots should do. In contrast, on the ISR approach research in social robotics turns on what social robots can and should do--design and development are from the very beginning informed by value-theoretic and cultural research. ISR thus is a form of research organization that integrates robotics with empirical, conceptual, and value-theoretic research in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Human Sciences. The resulting paradigm is user-driven design writ large: research, design, and development of social robotics applications are guided—with multiple feedback—by the reflected normative preferences of a cultural community.