This article presents a human-centred design study examining how low-fidelity and embodied prototyping methods can elicit design-relevant knowledge for Robotic-Assisted Surgery (RAS). Focusing on femoral cement removal in Revision Total Hip Arthroplasty (rTHA), we conducted a design-led workshop involving a senior orthopaedic surgeon with expertise in complex revision cases, a surgical assistant, a robotics engineer from an industry partner developing orthopaedic surgical robots and a team of design researchers. Through scenario-based roleplay, task enactment and spatial configuration activities, we surfaced tacit, embodied and situated insights into anatomical factors, instrument design, surgeon-robot ergonomics, shared control models and operating theatre layout. These findings highlight challenges and opportunities for integrating robotic systems into complex surgical procedures and demonstrate how collaborative exploratory prototyping can support early stage reflection and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange. Rather than validating a specific solution, the study contributes both a transferable methodological approach for eliciting design insights in high-risk, highly constrained environments and formative insights into the design of RAS systems for rTHA.

This research investigates the application of tangible and embodied prototyping methods integrated with virtual simulation in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). We present the development of the "kinematic puppet," a reliable, reusable, adaptable, and accessible prototyping tool designed to facilitate stakeholder engagement in early-stage HRI research and development without requiring significant financial or time investments. The potential of this methodological approach is illustrated through a formative co-design workshop in Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS), where the kinematic puppet, simple props and a low-fidelity anatomical model enabled stakeholders to externalise tacit knowledge through roleplay scenarios. The case study suggests that combining physical and virtual approaches can support stakeholders in expressing concrete ideas for improving or changing the interaction, making abstract concepts tangible, with virtual simulation enabling rich data capture for further design development. This work contributes to the rapidly expanding toolbox of design approaches in HRI.

This paper presents an account of using embodied composition as an approach to engage people in imagining robotic sound space. Embodied composition entails using bodily movements to produce a sequence of sounds. Semantic-free sound can play a useful communicative role in human-robot interaction. This includes robotic consequential sounds, i.e., sounds that robots inevitably make when moving, and the sonification of this movement. We bring together these topics and present a participatory, embodied approach that enables in-person investigation of robot consequential sound and movement sonification. We present three key insights about the approach based on three consecutive studies with a total of 29 participants. First, embodied composition engages participants' imagination of robotic sounds. Second, we found that movement, similar to listening, is tied to the individual and thereby leads to features and constraints for composition. Third, we found that sound can change people's experiences of the physical presence of the robot. Our discussion highlights that designing robot sounds benefits from a dialectical interaction approach. This offers a new direction for sound in human-robot interaction, relying not just on linear and functional design, but rather on designing for sound experiences.

In contrast to traditional industrial robots, collaborative robots are developed with the intention of allowing for close-proximity physical interaction between humans and robots. Current definitions of collaborative robots provide a pragmatic starting point for establishing safety guidelines, choosing operating parameters, and implementing organisational changes, but remain predicated on technological conceptions that prioritise a conscious split between people and robots, with the surrounding world as merely a physical site for interaction. In this paper, we take a postphenomenological perspective on robots in an investigation of human-world relations that robots can give rise to. This perspective can help elucidate the nature of such relations in a design process. Our investigation is anchored in an 8-month research study that aimed to, first, identify opportunities for a robot integration within a medical manufacturing facility and, second, facilitate a design and implementation process of a proof-of-concept robotic system in collaboration with workers. The paper contributes with an empirically anchored postphenomenological analysis of how human-world relations played out in the design process of a collaborative robotic system. Finally, we elaborate on the utility and limitations of a postphenomenological lens for design research.

Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) has many potential benefits to workers in various sectors but also inherently changes work practices, processes, and ways of thinking. Lupetti et al. [2] argue that design techniques and processes are needed to bridge the gap between the technical research driving HRC approaches and the sociocultural reality and needs of end-users. This demo presents the ''kinematic puppet,'' a novel, cost-effective, modular, and adaptable tangible interface to facilitate embodied exploration of robotic movements and interactions through roleplaying and Wizard-of-Oz prototyping, enabling the exploration of HRC concepts without requiring advanced skills in robotic programming and supporting more human-centered design in HRC.

Extended reality (XR) technologies, encompassing virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), have emerged as powerful visualisation mediums for enhancing the architectural design-fabrication process. AR has the practical relevance of streamlining on-site construction workflows by reducing errors, while its theoretical significance lies in its ability to transform traditional design and fabrication methodologies. AR can facilitate communications between humans, humans and robots during fabrication processes. In this paper, we examine three innovative case studies on the integration and utilisation of AR technology in architectural design-to-fabrication processes of collaborative tasks such as assembly and co-creation. First case study, uses AR overlays to facilitate human–human collaboration in implicit fabrication. Second case study explores the role of AR in supporting human–robot collaboration (HRC) for non-deterministic design processes. Third case study demonstrates how AR can enhance human–robot collaboration (HRC) in remote settings. By investigating these case studies, we provide insights into applied applications of AR in architectural contexts and the technology’s potential to support collaboration in architectural design-fabrication settings.

Collaborative robots (cobots) are increasingly employed in manufacturing to enhance productivity and efficiency, particularly by performing repetitive or precise tasks, allowing workers to focus on more complex activities. However, the growing adoption of cobots in dynamic environments, such as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), poses challenges in designing flexible and user-friendly interaction models. This research addresses these challenges by integrating tangible interaction and Extended Reality (XR) technologies to develop innovative interaction methods for human-robot collaboration in metalworking. The tangible interaction leverages users' familiarity with physical objects, while XR provides immersive, real-time visual overlays to enhance task execution and decision-making. A co-design methodology is employed, involving metalworkers, XR designers, and roboticists, to ensure the system meets user needs. The study progresses through four phases: contextual inquiry, co-design workshops, system development, and user testing. Preliminary findings highlight the potential of XR-enabled tangible interaction to improve safety, efficiency, and intuitiveness in cobot applications. Future work aims to refine prototypes, evaluate scalability, and explore broader industrial applications, paving the way for safer and more effective human-robot collaboration systems.

Augmented reality (AR)-enabled human–robot collaboration (HRC) is emerging as a critical paradigm in architectural design and fabrication, particularly for supporting real-time interaction, creative agency, and situated decision-making. As collaborative robots (cobots) become more integrated into exploratory design workflows, AR offers a means to bridge the gap between robotic precision and human intuition. This paper investigates how AR interfaces can facilitate adaptive, embodied collaboration between designers and cobots in spatially unconstrained, exploratory assembly tasks. We developed and evaluated an AR-enabled HRC system across two user studies involving architectural designers. The system allows users to preview, modify, and execute cobotic actions within a shared workspace, incorporating dynamic visual feedback and real-time spatial tracking. Drawing on principles of situated cognition and interactive fabrication, we analyse how AR supports spatial awareness, enhances user agency, and enables intuitive, adaptive interactions. The findings reveal that AR interfaces contribute to HRC through three interconnected themes: (1) improving predictive coordination by externalising cobot intentions and constraints, (2) reinforcing user agency via real-time decision-making tools, and (3) scaffolding situated learning through adaptive visual feedback. We conclude by outlining three key future directions: expanding the spatial and structural complexity of AR-HRC systems, developing more nuanced models of user-cobot interaction in design contexts, and integrating real-time structural feedback to inform user decision-making.

There is an increased interest towards robotic platforms for close and direct collaboration with people, given the benefits of utilising the complimentary capabilities of people and robots. This calls for research that considers how people are involved in design and development of these platforms. The term “empowerment” transverses Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) research domains and disciplines, including the OzCHI community. Approaches to empower people vary between these disciplines and domains, creating a need for clarifying and consolidating the different roles people play in HRC research. This paper summarises the why, when, how, and who of empowerment in HRC, drawing from insights gathered in an academic workshop at the OzCHI conference in 2023. We present five key characteristics relating to the ways that empowerment in HRC can be facilitated, along with barriers and pathways towards those characteristics.

Current research in robotic sounds generally focuses on either masking the consequential sound produced by the robot or on sonifying data about the robot to create a synthetic robot sound. We propose to capture, modify, and utilise rather than mask the sounds that robots are already producing. In short, this approach relies on capturing a robot's sounds, processing them according to contextual information (e.g., collaborators' proximity or particular work sequences), and playing back the modified sound. Previous research indicates the usefulness of non-semantic, and even mechanical, sounds as a communication tool for conveying robotic affect and function. Adding to this, this paper presents a novel approach which makes two key contributions: (1) a technique for real-time capture and processing of consequential robot sounds, and (2) an approach to explore these sounds through direct human-robot interaction. Drawing on methodologies from design, human-robot interaction, and creative practice, the resulting 'Robotic Blended Sonification' is a concept which transforms the consequential robot sounds into a creative material that can be explored artistically and within application-based studies.

Co-designing represents a dynamic power shift where an underrepresented community, like the older population, can impact the responsible innovation of technology and its relationship with future generations. As such, through co-design, we can challenge the current stereotypes, technological inequalities and exclusions often assigned to older adults. Our research proposed a mixed approach to holistically understand the habituation of imaginaries, specifically socially interactive robots, in the context of older adults through their ageing experience. Based on our research process, this paper aims to critically reflect on the challenges and opportunities of Participatory Design with older adults for the speculative design of socially interactive robots. We advocate opening the discussion that recognises the importance of aligning technology with older adults’ values and needs beyond the realm of technology-led innovations.

The emergence of collaborative robotics presents an opportunity for architectural designers to safely engage in design and fabrication through human-robot collaboration (HRC). By leveraging the adaptability, creativity, and design judgement of designers with the strength, repeatability, and design precision of robotic assistance, HRC has the potential to create a unified design-fabrication workflow. Recent advancements in augmented reality (AR) technology further enhance these prospects by enabling users to superimpose context-sensitive, computer-generated information in the real world. AR technology also provides situational awareness, which proves beneficial in the context of HRC. The maturation of AR technologies offers new possibilities for developing HRC systems tailored to architectural design-fabrication needs. Recognizing the pivotal role of human factors in HRC development process, this paper aims to explore the architectural designers’ needs to develop an AR-enabled HRC system that better supports the fabrication-centric design process, such as exploratory collaborative assembly tasks. Key findings highlight the necessity for a unified design-fabrication workflow, a clearer allocation of tasks between designers and robotic arms, an intuitive user interface, a streamlined interaction process, a better understanding of robot intentions and movements, intuitive procedures for error avoidance and correction, and enhanced user safety in HRC scenarios.

The increasing deployment of robots in urban spaces calls for design strategies to ensure their adaptation and to mitigate potential disruptions to complex urban contexts. Our research aims to initiate the discussion of contextual adaptability issues of urban robots by exploring everyday scenarios where their presence would appear out of place. We created a design probe for people to carry in their daily lives, facilitating them to envision the robot’s presence and capture scenarios where a robot seems to be disruptive. We collected data by distributing the probes among the research team and conducting a city walk activity using the probe at a workshop. This paper presents factors arising from the collected scenarios, encompassing temporal, spatial, cultural, and social dynamics, as well as various stakeholders that robots need to adapt to. These findings provide a blueprint and potential research directions for future research into robot contextual adaptability in urban environments.

The advent of Industry 4.0 has heralded advancements in Human–robot Collaboration (HRC), necessitating a deeper understanding of the factors influencing human decision making within this domain. This scoping review examines the breadth of research conducted on HRC, with a particular focus on identifying factors that affect human decision making during collaborative tasks and finding potential solutions to improve human decision making. We conducted a comprehensive search across databases including Scopus, IEEE Xplore and ACM Digital Library, employing a snowballing technique to ensure the inclusion of all pertinent studies, and adopting the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) for the reviewing process. Some of the important aspects were identified: (i) studies’ design and setting; (ii) types of human–robot interaction, types of cobots and types of tasks; (iii) factors related to human decision making; and (iv) types of user interfaces for human–robot interaction. Results indicate that cognitive workload and user interface are key in influencing decision making in HRC. Future research should consider social dynamics and psychological safety, use mixed methods for deeper insights and consider diverse cobots and tasks to expand decision-making studies. Emerging XR technologies offer the potential to enhance interaction and thus improve decision making, underscoring the need for intuitive communication and human-centred design.

Design-based pedagogy offers educational frameworks for integrating knowledge from various disciplines to address practical issues. The use of 3D printing is on the rise, however, to facilitate the execution of combined STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) assignments. However, limited research has investigated the challenges of operationalising this rapid prototyping technology in STEM education. In order to address the challenges, an investigation was conducted into the implementation of 3D printing in STEM classroom activities in Queensland, Australia's middle schools. A mixed-methods study was conducted in order to analyse survey data collected from an online questionnaire completed by 23 middle school teachers. Our findings lead to recommendations for addressing common challenges to facilitate 3D printing use on a routine basis. This study highlights the pivotal role of 3D printing as a foundational concept in integrated STEM teaching and learning methodologies. Furthermore, it acknowledges the capacity of 3D printing to transform the sociotechnical dynamics between researchers, educators, learners, ed-tech firms, and the government.

Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) is an increasingly prominent topic in CSCW. From telepresence systems through field robots for extreme missions to social robots in homes, HRC is becoming a recurring theme across a broad range of CSCW research. Based on the growing interest, we explore the coupling of the field of CSCW and research on robotics at this critical time. This paper presents a primary and secondary literature review of CSCW proceedings and venues for robotics research. We identified 29 CSCW papers that contribute to the body of HRC research and analyse the foundations on which these papers rely. Then, we identified 138 papers published in robotics outlets that either (1) cite one or more CSCW papers, or (2) use the term CSCW. We discuss how CSCW is currently contributing to HRC research through five research topics: Sociomateriality, teamwork, awareness, embodiment, and communication. The paper contributes by offering three key future pathways for expanding this area of research, outlining questions and gaps that have yet to be explored for (1) expanding the application domains and diversifying robot types for HRC, (2) methodological implications for HRC, and (3) learning from human collaboration.