Social Robots : Boundaries, Potential, Challenges

Social robotics is a cutting edge research area gathering researchers and stakeholders from various disciplines and organizations. The transformational potential that these machines, in the form of, for example, caregiving, entertainment or partner robots, pose to our societies and to us as individuals seems to be limited by our technical limitations and phantasy alone. This collection contributes to the field of social robotics by exploring its boundaries from a philosophically informed standpoint. It constructively outlines central potentials and challenges and thereby also provides a stable fundament for further research of empirical, qualitative or methodological nature.

'This well-crafted collection of timely and thought-provoking essays investigates the opportunities and challenges socially interactive robots represent for us, our communities, and the collective human/robot future that is being assembled all around us. It is (or should be) essential reading for anyone - human or robot - seeking to understand the social conditions and configurations of the 21st century and beyond.' - David J. Gunkel, Northern Illinois University, USA

'The large-scale integration of social robotic technologies into our everyday life is a much-anticipated next step in the technological and human evolution. The collection of topics comprising this book provides the reader with an in-depth understanding of challenges and potentials of social robotics. It is a must-read for anyone interested in this field.' - Hiroshi Ishiguro, Osaka University, Japan