Community in HRI: Extending Academic and Industry Collaboration

Abstract

The growing robot adoption in real-world communities emphasizes the role of community factors in promoting robot acceptance and interaction. This paper advocates for formalizing community involvement to expand industry-academia collaboration in HRI. It explores the importance of community in HRI, highlights unique aspects of academia-industry relationships resulting from community engagement, by sharing examples and a community involvement experience report. The paper also proposes a framework and considerations for sustainable collaboration with the community, aiming to unlock the full potential of HRI research. Lastly, it envisions generative communal labs as a way to tackle unresolved challenges of long-term integration of robots into communities and achievement of positive social and community impact.