Accomplishing Robotic Autonomy: The Complexities of Sociotechnical Care and Agency in the Laboratory
Abstract
Effective ethical interventions in emerging technologies such as robotic autonomy demand situated understandings of the practices that shape them. Drawing upon a year of participatory ethnography, this study examines the sociomaterial practices used to accomplish robotic agency in an engineering research laboratory. Ironically, the robot was often a helpless, even pathetic, figure. Roboticists displayed an attitude of surprisingly genuine, diligent, and self-effacing care toward the robot as they helped enable it to perform basic competencies such as picking up a bottle. Using a practice theory, we show how roboticists’ care practices, motivated and sustained by anticipatory narratives of robotic agency, accomplish robotic autonomy. We argue that interventions must acknowledge and engage with the complex dynamics of technologists’ care to be effective.
DOI
10.30658/hmc.9.9
Recommended Citation
Xu, Y., & Hauser, E. (2024). Accomplishing robotic autonomy: The complexities of sociotechnical care and agency in the laboratory. Human-Machine Communication, 9, 143–166. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.9.9
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