Robotic welding path programming is commonly framed as a technical problem addressed through expert-oriented tools. This pictorial presents a Research-through-Design (RtD) exploration of an Augmented Reality (AR) interface that allows operators to define seam and tack welding paths directly on physical workpieces using gestural input, while receiving immediate visual feedback on robotic reachability derived from inverse kinematics. This pictorial documents a series of design interactions in which system was progressively refined through deployment and designerly reflection, and examining how spatial interaction and infrastructural breakdowns can influence human understanding of robotic constraints during welding path planning. Through annotated images and reflective accounts of system use, this pictorial contributes (1) an AR-based path planning workflow that supports both seam and tack welding, and (2) design knowledge on how computational and visual feedback mediates embodied human-robot negotiation.

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.

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.

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.

Workpiece placement with respect to an industrial robot plays an important role in robotic manufacturing due to its influence on the configuration-dependent properties of industrial robots. Suboptimal placements of the workpiece may increase the required joint torques and decrease the dexterity of the robot. The focus of this work is to identify an optimal workpiece pose that enables a robot to carry out surface finishing with configurations that require the lowest possible joint torques while having maximum possible manipulability. We present a non-linear optimization-based algorithm to solve this problem and demonstrate the algorithm's capability on dif-ferent workpieces which we share to facilitate further research in this area.

In this paper we describe the design of DNA Jewellery, which is a wearable tangible data representation of personal DNA profile data. An iterative design process was followed to develop a 3D form-language that could be mapped to standard DNA profile data, with the aim of retaining readability of data while also producing an aesthetically pleasing and unique result in the area of personalized design. The work explores design issues with the production of data tangibles, contributes to a growing body of research exploring tangible representations of data and highlights the importance of approaches that move between technology, art and design.

Central to multi-stakeholder processes of participatory innovation is to generate knowledge about 'users' and to identify business opportunities accordingly. In these processes of collaborative analysis and synthesis, conflicting perceptions within and about a field of interest are likely to surface. Instead of the natural tendency to avoid these tensions, we demonstrate how tensions can be utilized by embodying them in provocative types (provotypes). Provotypes expose and embody tensions that surround a field of interest to support collaborative analysis and collaborative design explorations across stakeholders. In this paper we map how provotyping contributes to four related areas of contemporary Interaction Design practice. Through a case study that brings together stakeholders from the field of indoor climate, we provide characteristics of design provocations and design guidelines for provotypes for participatory innovation.

The use of material artefacts within the design process is a long-standing and continuing characteristic of interaction design. Established methods, such as prototyping, which have been widely adopted by educators and practitioners, are seeing renewed research interest and being reconsidered in light of the evolving needs of the field. Alongside this, the past decade has seen the introduction and adoption of a diverse range of novel design methods into interaction design, such as cultural probes, technology probes, context mapping, and provotypes.