Designing Humanoid Robots with Novel Roles and Social Abilities

The interest in humanoid robotics is constantly increasing and is motivating novel solutions for personal assistance, elderly care, child education or even for “designing robots for well-being”. In buildinghumanoid robots with novel roles in our society more social and psychologicalfactors will be of major concern in addition to the safety and acceptability issues of having robots performing close to the human and engaging them in joint tasks. The aim of the present mini-review is to outline some possible novel roles of humanoid robots accentuating on the psychological complexity that is necessary to be made inherent in the design of humanoid robotic technology.

 An especially designed study has revealed that, unlike the common view “that robots should do dangerous, dirty or dull jobs; publicopinion favors the view that robots should perform tasks requiringmemorization, keen perceptual skills and service orientation. People are preferred for occupations that require artistry, evaluation, judgment and diplomacy”.