Ensuring the safety of personnel at large industrial sites is a significant challenge. Misunderstandings and increased safety risks are related to communication, as traditional non-targeted alerts like sirens are often ineffective. To address this, we propose a drone-based system that uses voice interaction to deliver timely and targeted safety advisories. This paper presents a multi-stage, user-centered study, beginning with formative interviews with security and safety managers and culminating in an on-site evaluative study with personnel at two biomass power plants. Through our study, we identify key design insights for creating a drone that is perceived as an official, authoritative, and non-threatening entity. We provide design guidance for using sound and movement to signal intent, creating a voice persona that balances authority with clarity, and designing interaction flows to manage confusion and non-compliance. The results demonstrate the system's potential not only to enhance safety compliance, but also to mitigate interpersonal confrontation. First, we provide an empirically-grounded understanding of contextual safety challenges, which informs a set of design principles for intelligible and socially acceptable voice advisories from drones. Second, we present results from an in-situ evaluation of a working prototype that demonstrates its effectiveness in a real-world setting.

This article presents a human-centred design study examining how low-fidelity and embodied prototyping methods can elicit design-relevant knowledge for Robotic-Assisted Surgery (RAS). Focusing on femoral cement removal in Revision Total Hip Arthroplasty (rTHA), we conducted a design-led workshop involving a senior orthopaedic surgeon with expertise in complex revision cases, a surgical assistant, a robotics engineer from an industry partner developing orthopaedic surgical robots and a team of design researchers. Through scenario-based roleplay, task enactment and spatial configuration activities, we surfaced tacit, embodied and situated insights into anatomical factors, instrument design, surgeon–robot ergonomics, shared control models and operating theatre layout. These findings highlight challenges and opportunities for integrating robotic systems into complex surgical procedures and demonstrate how collaborative exploratory prototyping can support early stage reflection and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange. Rather than validating a specific solution, the study contributes both a transferable methodological approach for eliciting design insights in high-risk, highly constrained environments and formative insights into the design of RAS systems for rTHA.

This research investigates the application of tangible and embodied prototyping methods integrated with virtual simulation in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). We present the development of the “kinematic puppet,” a reliable, reusable, adaptable, and accessible prototyping tool designed to facilitate stakeholder engagement in early-stage HRI research and development without requiring significant financial or time investments. The potential of this methodological approach is illustrated through a formative co-design workshop in Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS), where the kinematic puppet, simple props and a low-fidelity anatomical model enabled stakeholders to externalise tacit knowledge through role-play scenarios. The case study suggests that combining physical and virtual approaches can support stakeholders in expressing concrete ideas for improving or changing the interaction, making abstract concepts tangible, with virtual simulation enabling rich data capture for further design development. This work contributes to the rapidly expanding toolbox of design approaches in HRI.

In contrast to traditional industrial robots, collaborative robots are developed with the intention of allowing for close-proximity physical interaction between humans and robots. Current definitions of collaborative robots provide a pragmatic starting point for establishing safety guidelines, choosing operating parameters, and implementing organisational changes, but remain predicated on technological conceptions that prioritise a conscious split between people and robots, with the surrounding world as merely a physical site for interaction. In this paper, we take a postphenomenological perspective on robots in an investigation of human-world relations that robots can give rise to. This perspective can help elucidate the nature of such relations in a design process. Our investigation is anchored in an 8-month research study that aimed to, first, identify opportunities for a robot integration within a medical manufacturing facility and, second, facilitate a design and implementation process of a proof-of-concept robotic system in collaboration with workers. The paper contributes with an empirically anchored postphenomenological analysis of how human-world relations played out in the design process of a collaborative robotic system. Finally, we elaborate on the utility and limitations of a postphenomenological lens for design research.

Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) has many potential benefits to workers in various sectors but also inherently changes work practices, processes, and ways of thinking. Lupetti et al. [2] argue that design techniques and processes are needed to bridge the gap between the technical research driving HRC approaches and the sociocultural reality and needs of end-users. This demo presents the “kinematic puppet,” a novel, cost-effective, modular, and adaptable tangible interface to facilitate embodied exploration of robotic movements and interactions through roleplaying and Wizard-of-Oz prototyping, enabling the exploration of HRC concepts without requiring advanced skills in robotic programming and supporting more human-centered design in HRC.

This paper presents an account of using embodied composition as an approach to engage people in imagining robotic sound space. Embodied composition entails using bodily movements to produce a sequence of sounds. Semantic-free sound can play a useful communicative role in human-robot interaction. This includes robotic consequential sounds, i.e., sounds that robots inevitably make when moving, and the sonification of this movement. We bring together these topics and present a participatory, embodied approach that enables in-person investigation of robot consequential sound and movement sonification. We present three key insights about the approach based on three consecutive studies with a total of 29 participants. First, embodied composition engages participants' imagination of robotic sounds. Second, we found that movement, similar to listening, is tied to the individual and thereby leads to features and constraints for composition. Third, we found that sound can change people's experiences of the physical presence of the robot. Our discussion highlights that designing robot sounds benefits from a dialectical interaction approach. This offers a new direction for sound in human-robot interaction, relying not just on linear and functional design, but rather on designing for sound experiences.

Medical training is a key element in maintaining and improving today's healthcare standards. Given the nature of medical work, students must master not only theory but also develop their hands-on abilities and skills in clinical practice. Medical simulators play an increasing role in supporting the active learning of these students due to their ability to present a large variety of tasks allowing students to train and experiment indefinitely without causing any patient harm. While the criticality of explainable AI systems has been extensively discussed in the literature, the medical training context presents unique user needs for explanations. In this paper, we explore the potential gap of current limitations within simulation-based training, and the role Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds in supporting the needs of medical students in training. Through contextual inquiries and interviews with clinicians in training (N = 9) and subsequent validation with medical experts (N = 4), we obtain an understanding of the shortcomings in current simulation-based training and offer recommendations for future AI-driven training. Our results stress the need for continuous and actionable feedback that resembles the interaction between clinical supervisor and resident in real-world training scenarios while adjusting training material to the residents' skills and prior performance.

Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) is an increasingly prominent topic in CSCW. From telepresence systems through field robots for extreme missions to social robots in homes, HRC is becoming a recurring theme across a broad range of CSCW research. Based on the growing interest, we explore the coupling of the field of CSCW and research on robotics at this critical time. This paper presents a primary and secondary literature review of CSCW proceedings and venues for robotics research. We identified 29 CSCW papers that contribute to the body of HRC research and analyse the foundations on which these papers rely. Then, we identified 138 papers published in robotics outlets that either (1) cite one or more CSCW papers, or (2) use the term CSCW. We discuss how CSCW is currently contributing to HRC research through five research topics: Sociomateriality, teamwork, awareness, embodiment, and communication. The paper contributes by offering three key future pathways for expanding this area of research, outlining questions and gaps that have yet to be explored for (1) expanding the application domains and diversifying robot types for HRC, (2) methodological implications for HRC, and (3) learning from human collaboration.

Sound zone technology enables multiple people to have personal and shared listening experiences without disturbing each other. Methods for constructing sound zones have now matured enough to allow installations outside of experimental laboratories, making it essential for further development to conduct empirical studies about how people adopt, use, and interact with sound zones in, e.g., domestic settings. To that end, we conducted a four-week field study with a sound zone system in five households. Through an inductive reflexive thematic analysis, we identify three themes relating to 1) experiencing sound zones in everyday life, 2) sound zone usage patterns in households, and 3) interacting with sound zones. Based on these themes, we discuss how sound zones can be used to manage sound in homes in new ways to allow for better social coexistence and listening experiences. We present four directions for future HCI research and interaction design to comply with user needs and considerations when using this novel technology.

In efforts to disseminate research on human-robot interaction, many researchers use illustrations in the form of sketches, photographs, and 3D models of robot movements. These illustrations are not only useful for building on the research, but they also capture ways researchers think about robot movement. In this paper, we review papers from the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction in which such illustrations are presented supplementary to the text. We analyse a total of 181 illustrations from 137 papers to understand the diverse ways in which robot movements are illustrated as well as how each style supports and limits information about the movements. We identify 10 basic styles that are used. Based on a visual analysis of these styles, we provide a detailed examination of each. This paper contributes with an overview that can be used to support future dissemination within the HRI research community. We present four aspects to consider for future illustrations and a discussion on how our findings could be utilised in early design processes.

Digital data shape work practices as they travel through space, time, and social situations. In turn, workers shape the materiality of data through different data-oriented activities. In this paper, we draw on theory of data journeys to develop and present a conceptual framework of four data-intensive activities: Producing, mobilising, processing, and re-purposing. Together, those activities capture entanglements of data transformations and data-intensive practices. We develop the framework through a qualitative study of digitisation in Environmental Assessment (EA) practice. EA practitioners reflect on their experiences working with digital environmental data through ten semi-structured and two interactive interviews. The paper offers two main contributions. First, we develop a data journey theoretical framework and show that it is useful as a unit of analysis for uncovering tensions in data-oriented activities. Second, we use these insights to outline a set of tensions for future design activities in the area of data work practices.

‘Soundscapes’ are an increasingly active topic in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and interaction design. From mapping acoustic environments through sound recordings to designing compositions as interventions, soundscapes appear as a recurring theme across a wide body of HCI research. Based on this growing interest, now is the time to explore the types of studies in which soundscapes provide a valuable lens to HCI research. In this paper, we review papers from conferences sponsored or co-sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction in which the term ’soundscape’ occurs. We analyse a total of 235 papers to understand the role of soundscapes as a research focus and identify untapped opportunities for soundscape research within HCI. We identify two common soundscape conceptualisations: (1) Acoustic environments and (2) Compositions, and describe what characterises studies into each concept and the hybrid forms that also occur. On the basis of this, we carve out a foundation for future soundscape research in HCI as a methodological anchor to form a common ground and support this growing research interest. Finally, we offer five recommendations for further research into soundscapes within HCI.

Sound zone technology allows multiple simultaneous sound experiences for multiple people in the same room without interference. However, given the inherent invisible and intangible nature of sound zones, it is unclear how to communicate the position and size of sound zones to users. This paper compares two visualisation techniques; absolute visualisation, relational visualisation, as well as a baseline condition without visualisations. In a within-subject experiment (N = 33), we evaluated these techniques for effectiveness and efficiency across four representative tasks. Our findings show that the absolute and relational visualisation techniques increase effectiveness in multi-user tasks but not in single-user tasks. The efficiency for all tasks was improved using visualisations. We discuss the potential of visualisations for sound zones and highlight future research opportunities for sound zone interaction.

In this paper, we investigate the use of shape-change for interaction with sound zones. A core challenge to designing interaction with sound zone systems is to support users’ understanding of the unique spatial properties of sound zones. Shape-changing interfaces present new opportunities for addressing this. We present a structured investigation into this. We leveraged the knowledge of 12 sound experts to define a set of basic shapes and movements. Then, we constructed a prototype and conducted an elicitation study with 17 novice users, investigating the experience of these shapes and movements. Our findings show that physical visualizations of sound zones can be useful in supporting users’ experience of sound zones. We present a framework of 4 basic pattern categories that prompt different sound zone experiences and outline further research directions for shape-change in supporting sound zone interaction.