In this paper, we critically examine the current "humanoid hype" in robotics, questioning its alignment with responsible robotics principles. While technical challenges drive internal fascination, the pervasive public image of humanoids demands deeper HRI engagement. We explore how responsible robotics concepts, such as privacy, dignity, and trust, are uniquely challenged or overlooked in the pursuit of anthropomorphic robot forms. By dissecting this hype, and mapping the main findings of the recently-published Roadmap for Responsible Robotics to the humanoids field, we aim to move beyond technical form-factor obsessions to understand the true societal implications and identify potential blind spots for the HRI community.

Remote driving is a promising strategy for helping Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) navigate many environments where edge cases may otherwise limit their abilities. For some companies, remote driving is an alternative to AVs altogether. Much remote driving research has taken place in simulated or controlled environments with novice operators, leaving the needs of operators with real-world experience under-explored. This research aims to understand if experienced operators are satisfied with current production remote driving systems, if they adapt to the difference in control, and how their job satisfaction compares to in-vehicle safety driving. This paper briefly overviews recent remote driving research and presents results from a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview with experienced teleoperators. The findings indicate that operators do adjust to the new domain, but latency and network reliability remain a challenge. Likewise, standardised training practices for operators are found to be lacking.

Physically embodied artificial agents, or robots, are being incorporated into various practical and social contexts, from self-driving cars for personal transportation to assistive robotics in social care. To enable these systems to better perform under changing conditions, designers have proposed to endow robots with varying degrees of autonomous capabilities and the capacity to move between them—an approach known as variable autonomy. Researchers are beginning to understand how robots with fixed autonomous capabilities influence a person’s sense of autonomy, social relations, and, as a result, notions of responsibility; however, addressing these topics in scenarios where robot autonomy dynamically changes is underexplored. To establish a research agenda for variable autonomy that emphasises the responsible design and use of robotics, we conduct a developmental review. Based on a sample of 42 papers, we provide a synthesised definition of variable autonomy to connect currently disjointed research efforts, detail research approaches in variable autonomy to strengthen the empirical basis for subsequent work, characterise the dimensions of variable autonomy, and present design guidelines for variable autonomy research based on responsible robotics.

Since 2014, a specific standard has been dedicated for the safety certification of personal care robots, which operate in close proximity to humans. These robots serve as information providers, object transporters, personal mobility carriers, and security patrollers. In this article, we point out the shortcomings concerning EN ISO 13482:2014, which encompasses guidelines regarding the safety and design of personal care robots. In particular, we argue that the current standard is not suitable for guaranteeing people's safety when these robots operate in public spaces. Specifically, the standard lacks requirements to protect pedestrians and bystanders. The guideline implicitly assumes that private spaces, such as households and offices, present the same hazards as in public spaces. We highlight the existence of at least three properties pertaining to robots’ use in public spaces. These properties include (1) crowds, (2) social norms and proxemics rules, and (3) people's misbehaviours. We discuss how these properties impact robots’ safety. This article aims to raise stakeholders’ awareness on individuals’ safety when robots are deployed in public spaces. This could be achieved by integrating the gaps present in EN ISO 13482:2014 or by creating a new dedicated standard.

We report on the design and the experimental results of DustCart, a wheeled autonomous robot for door-to-door garbage collection. DustCart is able to navigate in urban environments avoiding static and dynamic obstacles and to interact with human users. The robot is managed by an Ambient Intelligence system (AmI) through a wireless connection: it navigates to collect garbage bags to the houses of users and then moves to discharge the collected waste to a dedicated area. The architecture, navigation and localization systems are described along with the results achieved in different urban sites. In particular, a localization approach based on optical beacons was used and guaranteed position errors sufficient for a safe robot navigation. We report also the first results of a long-term experimentation of the DustCart robot in Peccioli, a small town of Tuscany (Italy). This can be considered as a first step in using robotics in the everyday life of a real town for providing a real service.

This paper describes and discusses the preliminary results of a behavioural study on robot social acceptability, which was carried out during a public demonstration in South Korea. Data was collected by means of direct observation of people behaviour during interaction with robots. The most interesting result to emerge is that of young people: they tended to react to the robots presence with extreme curiosity and, quite often, to treat them aggressively. In this paper, the word bullying is used to describe any kind of improper and violent behaviour, intended to cause damages or impede the robot operation. It is the authors' opinion that if not tackled appropriately, abuses towards robots may become a serious hindrance to their future deployment, and safety. Hence, the necessity to tackle this issue with dedicated solutions during the early phases of design.