Closeness with Robots as Social Partners

HRI researchers have explored how people behave toward technology agents, advancing the concept that people can attain “closeness” with technology itself in addition to a living social partner. Yet the topic of closeness with robots has not been fully explored or organized into a discrete area of study. This seems particularly important to the design of robots that are expressive, to the implementation of technologies that use new social signal processing or reciprocal social touch, and to the study of how people respond to robots. This half-day workshop is a forum to discuss the future of “closeness” with robots, conversational agents, autonomous vehicles, Internet of Things devices and other technologies that act as social partners—designs, applications, responses and societal concerns.