Towards Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Human-Robot Interaction

As robots become smarter and interact with people in different social contexts it has become necessary to design robots that accommodate the information needs and values of a diverse group of users. This is an important topic of research for human-robot interaction given people who interact with robots vary by race, ethnicity, and gender. However, recent discussions within the robotics community suggest that current robots may not be designed to reflect the values and diversity of the users who interact with robots and thus may not be inclusive for different user populations. Drawing on Social Identity Theory, this paper focuses on whether users assign an ethnic identity to a robot and if so, which characteristics of robots lead to such decisions. From information on how users place robots into social categories, guidelines can be developed for interfaces between humans and robots that accommodate the ethnic diversity of users expected to interact with robots in social contexts.