Designers' Skills for Social Robotics

The discussion around Social Robotics reflects the way we perceive our present and how we envision the future. Social Robots differ in form and function from their factory cousins based on the context they operate in. Social Robots today tackle loneliness among the elderly, aid patients with developmental and degenerative diseases, help perform household tasks and more. The common denominator among all these roles is intensive contact with humans. This contact draws Robotics out of its technical foundations to seek inputs from other disciplines like Social Sciences, Psychology and Design. The potential of the Social Robotics market leads us to investigate the role Industrial Design could play in it, the skills designers will need to cultivate to participate and the strategies for Industrial Design education to ensure the preparedness of new designers for the field of Social Robotics.