Author: Maaike Bleeker // This paper proposes ensoulment as an artist-led relational approach to developing robot behavior. As an alternative to the more commonly used term animation, ensoulment offers a radical relational perspective on how to bring about a sense of personhood or character that starts from exploring the potential of puppets and robots for…

Authors: Marco C. Rozendaal, Anastasia Kouvaras Ostrowski, Mafalda Gamboa, Samantha Reig, Patricia Alves-Oliveira, Maaike Bleeker // The 3rd Workshop on Designerly Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) aims to bring together scholars and practitioners engaged in design-oriented research to articulate the value of design research within HRI broadly. We propose a half-day workshop to (1) collectively map the…

Author: Anita Vrins // The conversational abilities of social robots can benefit from large language models (LLMs) to manage topics. Pre-structured and partially pre-scripted dialogue ensures safety, particularly in educational settings with children. However, using a fully pre-scripted approach does not allow for taking the child’s interests into account nor can it handle child-initiated topic…

Authors: Hyunmin Lee, Nazli Cila, Klaas Koerten, Maaike Bleeker, Marco Rozendaal // This paper explores the design of expressive movements for service robots in fine-dining restaurants, using a performative approach to understand how robots can be integrated and accepted in complex real-world settings. Drawing on dramaturgical principles, we conducted three research and design activities-speculative enactments,…