The physical design of social robots plays a significant role in how they are perceived, as well as which social and emotional abilities are attributed to them. Robots today are often designed with a childlike and cute appearance, as existing research has shown that this can evoke strong emotional reactions in users and help to make the robots appear more friendly and trustworthy.

The challenge with this design choice is that such robots, through their physical form, are often attributed unintended and undesirable human social and emotional traits. Additionally, the childlike appearance can be perceived as patronising, which may lead to the robot not being accepted in the home.

When designing social robots for the future, it is important that their design provides an appropriate level of information about the robot's possibility for social coordination, without the user necessarily attributing human characteristics to the design.

The goal of the ACUTE project is to explore precisely this balancing act between sociality and the robot’s form. The project will investigate a new visual category of social robots for the home, inspired by the objects we surround ourselves with daily, rather than imitating living beings or machines, thereby generating new knowledge about how we as humans understand and decode social traits in robots.
Description

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Extended Reality (ICXR) is an ongoing research initiative at Aarhus University. The center brings together researchers from across faculties and disciplines who investigate or apply Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and related technologies. ICXR provides a collaborative platform for sharing research, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, and exploring the future potential and societal impact of immersive and spatial technologies.Description

The DARE project operates within the interdisciplinary field of Humanities research in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), combining philosophical expertise (social ontology, phenomenology, axiology, ethics), anthropological fieldwork, and constructive design research. With a focus on assistive robotics for supporting independent living among older adults, the project investigates the complex interplay between value hierarchies (e.g., autonomy vs. dignity), self-conceptions in aging, and robot appearance.
The world is facing a major demographic challenge in the coming decades, as the number of elderly citizens increases while the workforce declines. Welfare robots are predicted to play a significant role in addressing this challenge by assisting older adults with daily tasks, thereby extending their ability to live independently at home. However, despite promises of increased autonomy and dignity, many older adults hesitate to welcome robots into their homes. Research points to robot appearance as a central reason for this resistance—many robots have toy-like, futuristic, or mechanical designs that clash with older adults’ values and perceptions of home.
To address this issue, the DARE project explores how robot design can better align with users’ values and environments. Drawing on insights from recent design studies of shape-changing objects, the project introduces a new design category: “enabling social interiors.” This concept moves away from imitating living beings or machines and instead draws inspiration from everyday objects and furniture, aiming to create robots that integrate seamlessly into domestic spaces.
The project seeks to understand and improve the acceptance of welfare robots by examining the relationship between values, self-understanding, form, and interior design. Through an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach—including philosophical and phenomenological value analysis, anthropological methods, and constructive design research—the project explores a new innovative design space at the intersection of objects, furniture, interiors, values, and individuals.
Ultimately, the DARE project contributes knowledge not only to the specific domain of elder care robotics but also to the broader development of social robots. It offers new approaches to adjusting robots’ social signals and physical form to better suit specific contexts, enhancing their acceptance and effectiveness in real-world environments.
Description

Research Project 1 funded by the Independent Research Fund DenmarkDescription

Generative AI (such as ChatGPT, Bard, Midjourney, Dall-E, etc.) can create new content based on so-called prompts that people write to them in everyday language. These technologies have rapidly been developed and have proliferated recently, but at the cost of transparency and comprehensibility. It is generally challenging to discern where the texts and images originate from and why they appear as they do. HAIC-III aims to combine humanistic methods with art and design practices to explore Generative AI as an expressive, creative, and cultural interface. The project draws on interdisciplinary research fields, including digital literature, critical data studies, and software studies. HAIC-III analyzes how Generative AI is constructed as an interface and how it establishes new relationships with cultural archives. Additionally, HAIC-III experiments with designing alternative interfaces for Generative AI and employs artistic research to examine how AI impacts current societal and cultural perceptions. Fundamentally, the project investigates how we can use artistic and design-based approaches to address and manage problematic aspects of Generative AI use through a focus on creative human-AI collaboration. HAIC-III prioritizes human-AI collaboration over automation and views Generative AI as a cultural expression engine and creative interface.Layman's description