Michael Nagenborg, University of Twente, NL

As robots are leaving the factories, they not only start to interact with human and non-human beings on a more casual base. They also start to co-shape the urban environment. This might be most obvious in the case of ‘Smart transportation systems’. Self-driving cars, for example, might require specific infrastructures for navigating densely populated spaces. This might result in the implementation of new information infrastructures, which assist the vehicles in sensing the environment (e.g. traffic lights, which communicate with the vehicles). But this might also result in the zoning of public spaces (e.g., dedicated lanes for self-driving cars or service-robots).

But self-driving vehicles of different kinds are not the only example for robots co-shaping the city. Robotic systems may also be used for construction and maintenance work. We already see the emergence of 3d printed constructions enabled by robots. The vision of the ‘self-maintaining city’ also builds on robotic applications. The potential use of robots in smart cities is another currently under researched topic. The potential use of UAVs for policing and by first responders are the best know examples. Yet, this might very well only be the first step.

All of these developments lead to the question; do we want cities to be designed for robots or, do we want robots to be designed for cities. In my talk I will argue for the later. Since we are at an early stage of the development of robots to be used in urban environments I will show that questions about the relationship between robots and the city need to be addressed now. In this presentation I will present and discuss a first outline of a framework for responsible urban innovations in the field of robotic applications.