rokit Competence Center for the Use of Service Robots in Public Spaces

Robots are already widely used in factories, whereas their use in public spaces is still a rarity. The possible applications here are much more diverse than in industrial environments. Cleaning, transportation, inspection and safety monitoring are just some of the possibilities. So why have robots only been used in public spaces as prototypes or in demarcated areas for testing? A major challenge is the lack of legal and ethical frameworks and best practices for robot manufacturers and users.

To tackle this problem, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched the “rokit” competence center. The aim of the project is to design and research the use of robots in public spaces. Together with its partners, the Fraunhofer IFF was awarded the contract to form this competence center and is now conducting various field trials with these partners in which robots are deployed in public places to collect valuable data on their interactions with the public. For example, they are investigating how people react to robots in different application scenarios.

The robots used for the experiments will be equipped by the Fraunhofer IFF with additional sensor technology that is able to film people in the robot's environment but make their identifiable features unrecognizable in order to enable an examination of the robot's environment that is acceptable under data protection law. In addition, the robots will be equipped with signaling devices for parts of the experiments in order to investigate the efficient use of signaling devices on robots.

Expected project outcomes

The data obtained here is analyzed by experts in the fields of technology, occupational safety, law, ethics and psychology and serves as the basis for best practice recommendations. The focal points of the studies include:

• Social acceptance of robots based on their behavior (minimum distance, signals, noise levels, trajectories)
• Design of the interaction between robots and vulnerable groups of people
• Consideration of the general mechanical danger posed by robots in public spaces
• Use of robots in unexpectedly changing environments

The recommendations developed will initially be made available to the BMBF and interested companies, institutes and standardization bodies.