Robots in the Deep Wild: Ethnography of People's Everyday Lives with Social Robots

Abstract

My research explores how robots become meaningful parts of people's lives by examining the social, technical, and cultural ecologies of consumer robots. Based on ethnographic fieldwork primarily conducted in Japan, I investigate how robots like aibo, LOVOT, and RoBoHoN are integrated into daily routines and relationships. My findings challenge the conventional focus on design features in HRI, advocating for a broader understanding of human-robot interaction that includes the social practices and human labor sustaining long-term engagement.