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.

“Sustainability −4- HRI, HRI −4-Sustainability” offers hands-on engagement with the HRI 2025 conference theme, “Robots for a Sustainable World”. This workshop will explore the relationship between HRI and sustainable development and stimulate discussion on how we can make our own research practices more sustainable. We propose a full-day workshop, featuring morning discussions with sustainability experts and activists, and an afternoon hands-on activity aimed at understanding how robotics research can help in creating sustainable futures. We will broadly answer the following questions: How can we, as robotic researchers, help address sustainable development responsibly? Equally, how can we ensure that our HRI research practices minimises ecological footprints and operates within ethical and sustainable frameworks? We envision two practical outcomes of this workshop: a “sustainability statement” that can be submitted together with future HRI research papers, and a paper gathering insights and reflections from the workshop. We welcome researchers and students at any career stage and from any subfield of HRI to attend and contribute.

The use of drones is expected to increase for delivering groceries or medical equipment to individuals. Understanding how people perceive drone behavior, specifically in terms of approach trajectories and delivery methods, and identifying factors that induce feelings of uncertainty is crucial for perceived safety and trust. This virtual reality experiment investigated the impact of drone approach trajectories and delivery methods on feelings of uncertainty. Forty-five participants observed a drone approaching in an orthogonal or a curved path and either, delivering packages by landing or using a cable while hovering above eye level. We found that participants felt uncertain and unsafe, especially when looking up at drones approaching with orthogonal paths. Curved paths led to lower feelings of uncertainty, with comments such as being more natural, trustful, and safe. Feelings of uncertainty arose while landing on the ground due to altitude changes and potential collision concerns. Using a cable instead of actually landing for delivery reduced feelings of uncertainty and increased trust. The study recommends drones avoid hovering near humans, especially after landing. Furthermore, the study suggests exploring design solutions, including design aesthetics and human–machine interfaces, that clearly convey drone intentions to help reduce feelings of uncertainty.

We present an exploratory, in-the-wild study in which a small hobby drone and a game controller were freely used by five people in their domestic environments, indoors and outdoors. All participants had motor disabilities affecting their arms and hands, and two also used wheelchairs. One participant contributed as a community researcher, assisting in data analysis, reflecting on findings, drawing conclusions, and co-authoring this paper. The findings reveal several usability and accessibility issues, along with potential risks and opportunities for the use of hobby drones in everyday situations. Beyond these insights, we discuss the importance of including people with lived experience of disability in research to shape a holistic and inclusive understanding of the use of mainstream artifacts such as hobby drones. This also helps prevent able-bodied design norms from limiting who can use drone technology and how it is used.

There are current methodological and epistemological gaps and struggles between Human-Drone Interaction research and the field of design. We highlight five HDI design considerations and suggest a non-exhaustive list of design methods to approach them. We present an appeal to a more diverse and inclusive study of drones where current research can be balanced with a deeply qualitative and critical understanding of these flying robots through embracing design knowledge.

The spectrum of applications for social drones is broadening as they become an increasingly accessible technology. In order to expand on the immensely rich but poorly researched field of Human-Drone Interaction (HDI), we present a minimal, explorative, and anti-solutionist design. We describe the first steps of a Research through Design (RtD) project focused on the concept-driven exploration of an unlikely pairing: drones and breathing. We present Wisp, a micro-drone probe controlled by a user’s breath. Informed by experts on breathing, drawing inspiration from soma design, Wisp is described as platform for the development of defamiliarising views towards intimate somatic interactions between humans and drones. In this paper we describe the initial studies in a RtD development process, including expert interviews, prototyping, and informal evaluations. We contribute to the field of HDI with a design composite framework combining soma design and slow technology for exploratory somatic slow interactions between humans and drones.

The conversational nature of sketches is a widespread topic of research. Understanding drawing as a cognitive activity is commonly accepted, and many of the most extensively used methods within Human-Computer Interaction recruit sketching as a technique for ideation, explanation, documentation, and conversation. To further develop the use of this illustration process as a tool of knowledge production, we suggest a novel sketching method. We present Conversational Composites: a flexible method grounded in the material and tangible qualities of sketching in different forms and media, creating physical and digital layers of conversation between participants. We present and reflect on the proposed method through an applied case of a conversation between a PhD student and her supervisor, and offer suggestions on how it may be adapted and appropriated by other researchers in the HCI community.

What could it mean to take a designerly perspective of a robotic eating aid to get a more holistic understanding of meals as social and embodied experiences? In this article, we provide a new perspective of bodily experiences of assisted feeding. We apply “designerly framing” in the context of meals and Human Robot Interaction (HRI) and contribute with insights for researchers with backgrounds other than design into how “designerly framing” can foreground social and aesthetic use. The study focuses on experiences of assisted feeding of five people with impairments in their arms or hands. All of the subjects have long-term experience of meal assistance, and four also have experience of using a robotic eating aid. The data collection comprises seven interview sessions held in peoples homes, a functional analysis of the meal experience, and a workshop held at a design agency. The “designerly framing” is also supported by a theoretical framework describing different types of use to open the meal as a design space. This complements and extends existing knowledge on acceptance and abandonment of assistive technology (AT) and assistive robotics for the meal.

When flying robots are used in close-range interaction with humans, the noise they generate, also called consequential sound, is a critical parameter for user acceptance. We conjecture that there is a benefit in adding natural sounds to noisy domestic drones. To test our hypothesis experimentally, we carried out a mixed-methods research study (N = 56) on reported user perception of a sonified domestic flying robot with three sound conditions at three distances. The natural sounds studied were, respectively, added to the robot’s inherent noises during flying; namely, a bird song and a rain sound, plus a control condition of no added sound. The distances studied were set according to proxemics; namely, near , middle , and far . Our results show that adding bird song or rain sound affects the participants’ perceptions, and the proxemic distances play a nonnegligible role. For instance, we found that participants liked the bird condition the most when the drone was at far , while they disliked the same sound the most when at near . We also found that participants’ perceptions strongly depended on their associations and interpretations deriving from previous experience. We derived six concrete design recommendations.

Human-drone interaction is a growing topic of interest within HCI research. Researchers propose many innovative concepts for drone applications, but much of this research does not incorporate knowledge on existing applications already adopted by professionals. This limits the validity of said research. To address this limitation, we present our findings from an in-depth interview study with 10 professional drone pilots. Our participants were armed with significant experience and qualifications – pertinent to both drone operations and a set of applications covering diverse industries. Our findings have resulted in design recommendations that should inform both ends and means of human-drone interaction research. These include, but are not limited to: safety-related protocols, insights from domain-specific use cases, and relevant practices outside of hands-on flight.

This paper describes a case study of the initial reactions to a transport robot running in a semi-public hospital environment. The robot was transporting goods and samples for an orthopedic department, moving within and between different departments for 13 days, and was used by the staff for five days. Based on this case, we discuss how the robot was perceived by staff and visitors and purpose an initial framework, a utopian model, describing four different perspectives; an alien, a machine, a worker and as a work partner. This has been derived from interviews, questionnaires and observation, and exemplifies different qualities that the robot was ascribed. We discuss how the perspectives may mutually co-exist and change, and are affected by time and familiarity with the robot at work.

We use a long-term study of a robotic eating-aid for disabled users to illustrate how empirical use give rise to a set of ethical issues that might be overlooked in ethic discussions based on theoretical extrapolation of the current state-of-the-art in robotics. This approach provides an important complement to the existing robot ethics by revealing new issues as well as providing actionable guidance for current and future robot design. We discuss our material in relation to the literature on robot ethics, specifically the risk of robots performing care taking tasks and thus causing increased isolation for care recipients. Our data identifies a different set of ethical issues such as independence, privacy, and identity where robotics, if carefully designed and developed, can make positive contributions.

We discuss the difference between understanding robot ethics as something that is grounded in philosophical ideas about a potential future design, and understanding robot ethics as something that is grounded in empirical data. We argue, that understanding "robots" as a relatively homogenous group of designs for which we can formulate general ethics may lead to a foresight of future robot designs that includes ideas and concerns that are not feasible or realistic. Our aim is to exemplify a complementing perspective, by shedding light on two different robotic designs. We discuss their relation to specific use practices and user experiences, and provide some early ethical reflections and design concerns.

We discuss how an experience centred approach to robotic design might lead to new design spaces and products that are more engaging and better meet users' needs and lifestyles. To support the statement, we present preliminary data from a long-term user study on an eating aid robot.

Pleo is one of the more advanced interactive toys currently available for the home market, taking the form of a robotic dinosaur. We present an exploratory study of how it was interacted with and reflected upon in the homes of six families during 2 to 10 months. Our analysis emphasizes a discrepancy between the participants' initial desires to borrow a Pleo and what they reported later on about their actual experiences. Further, the data suggests an apparent tension between participants expecting the robot to work as a 'toy' while making consistent comparisons with real pet animals. We end by discussing a series of implications for design of this category of toys, in order to better maintain interest and engagement over time.

This paper aims to contribute with an understanding of meaningful experiences of photography, to support reflection upon the design of future camera devices. We have conducted a study of a passive camera device called Sensecam, which previously has been investigated as a memory aid, a combination of life-logging and memory tool and as a resource for digital narratives. We take a creative perspective and show that even if a camera is designed to be forgotten in use (i.e. is worn as a necklace and takes pictures automatically) it can still be part of an engaging or active photographic experience. Because Sensecam is different from film cameras, camera phones and other digital cameras, it involves a different type of photographic experience, for example when moving through different social contexts and how the resulting pictures are appreciated. The findings stem from people who used the camera for a week. This is complemented with reflections from the researcher, who has been using the camera for a month.

We use the Cargo Cult metaphor to discuss visions, methods and communication of robot research. Essentially cargo cult involves performing of imitative rituals that are conducted without understanding the underlying cause of a phenomenon. We discuss how this is an ongoing challenge within the field of HRI, and what researchers could do to avoid contributing to a robotic cargo cult.

In this report we discuss some of the challenges when applying a user-centred design approach in the field of human-robot interaction (HRI). The discussion is based on a one-day workshop at the NordiCHI'08 conference, investigating how methods, techniques and perspectives from the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) could contribute to and learn from recent developments in the area of HRI. Emphasis was put on topics that are infrequent in mainstream HCI such as machine movement, autonomy, anthropomorphism, physical interaction, environmental issues and issues concerned more generally with cultural notions of robots.

Transfer scenarios is a method developed to support the design of innovative interactive technology. Such a method should help the designer to come up with inventive ideas, and at the same time provide grounding in real human needs. In transfer scenarios, we use marginal practices to encourage a changed mindset throughout the design process. A marginal practice consists of individuals who share an activity that they find meaningful. We regard these individuals not as end-users, but as valuable input in the design process. We applied this method when designing novel applications for autonomous embodied agents, e.g. robots. Owners of unusual pets, such as snakes and spiders, were interviewed - not with the intention to design robot pets, but to determine underlying needs and interests of their practice. The results were then used to design a set of applications for more general users, including a dynamic living-room wall and a set of communicating hobby robots.

We are exploring strategies for designing novel robots, or more generally, personal embodied agents. The motivation is to open up the design space for robots in everyday environments, while at the same time grounding new designs in existing human interests. We have modified established methods from the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). First, we investigated specific human interests, in this case in exotic pets, to understand and design for possible interests of future robot owners. Based on the data from interviews with pet owners, we developed four active characters, so called personas. Each persona has a specific interest in robots as personal embodied agents, which has a particular form, role and behaviour. From the resulting personas we derived a number of possible designs, where the agents take on different roles in peoples' everyday activities

Context photography consists of capturing sensing physical input in addition to light and this new concept, we explore alternative potentials creative tool. We have developed a working movement and represents them visually in interactive exhibition we wish to present, visitors The pictures taken by visitors would be dynamically projection on a wall. Large hardcopy photographs hung on another wall. This exhibition is meant alternative approaches to digital photography. http://www.viktoria.se/fal/projects/photo.