Robohub.org
ep.
158
podcast
A Code of Ethics for HRI Practitioners with Laurel Riek
Human-robot interaction is a fascinating field of research in robotics. It also happens to be the field that is closely related to many of the ethical concerns raised with regards to interactive robots. Should human-robot interaction (HRI) practitioners keep in mind things such as human dignity, psychological harm, and privacy? What about how robot design relates to racism and sexism?
Dr. Laurel D. Riek worked on a code of ethics for HRI practitioners with Dr. Don Howard, both professors at the University of Notre Dame. They presented their work at the We Robot conference held earlier this year.
Curious to find out more, AJung spoke with Dr. Riek about what motivated them to draft the code of ethics, what is covered, and where they plan to take it.
Laurel Riek
Laurel Riek is the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, where she directs the Robotics, Health, and Communication Lab. Her research interests are in human-robot interaction, social signal processing, and health informatics. Riek’s work explores how to build machines that are socially agile – able to sense, respond, and adapt to human behavior. This includes computationally modeling social context and synchrony, as well as building expressive robots, such as next generation patient simulator systems. Riek received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge and BS in Logic and Computation from Carnegie Mellon University. She worked for eight years as a Senior Artificial Intelligence Engineer and Roboticist at MITRE, on projects including search and rescue robotics, unmanned vehicles, and natural language processing. For her research, she has received several high-level awards from MITRE, a Qualcomm Research Award in Computing, and the NSF CAREER Award.Links:
- Download mp3 (15.5MB)
- Subscribe to Robots using iTunes
- Subscribe to Robots using RSS
- Laurel Riek’s Website
- Robotics, Health, and Communication Lab website
tags: ethics, human-robot interaction, podcast
AJung Moon
HRI researcher at McGill and publicity co-chair for the ICRA 2022 conference
AJung Moon
HRI researcher at McGill and publicity co-chair for the ICRA 2022 conference
Related posts :
Robot Talk Episode 119 – Robotics for small manufacturers, with Will Kinghorn
Robot Talk
02 May 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Will Kinghorn from Made Smarter about how to increase adoption of new tech by small manufacturers.
Multi-agent path finding in continuous environments
AIhub
01 May 2025
How can a group of agents minimise their journey length whilst avoiding collisions?
Interview with Yuki Mitsufuji: Improving AI image generation
AIhub
29 Apr 2025
Find out about two pieces of research tackling different aspects of image generation.
Robot Talk Episode 118 – Soft robotics and electronic skin, with Miranda Lowther
Robot Talk
25 Apr 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Miranda Lowther from the University of Bristol about soft, sensitive electronic skin for prosthetic limbs.
Interview with Amina Mević: Machine learning applied to semiconductor manufacturing
AIhub
17 Apr 2025
Find out how Amina is using machine learning to develop an explainable multi-output virtual metrology system.
Robot Talk Episode 117 – Robots in orbit, with Jeremy Hadall
Robot Talk
11 Apr 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Jeremy Hadall from the Satellite Applications Catapult about robotic systems for in-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing.
Robot Talk Episode 116 – Evolved behaviour for robot teams, with Tanja Kaiser
Robot Talk
04 Apr 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Tanja Katharina Kaiser from the University of Technology Nuremberg about how applying evolutionary principles can help robot teams make better decisions.
AI can be a powerful tool for scientists. But it can also fuel research misconduct
The Conversation
31 Mar 2025
While AI is allowing scientists to make technological breakthroughs, there’s also a darker side to the use of AI in science: scientific misconduct is on the rise.
