The Use of Ethnography to Identify and Address Ethical, Legal, and Societal (ELS) Issues.

As robotic technologies rapidly enter our everyday lives, we are compelled to consider the ethical, legal, and societal (ELS) challenges that arise in connection to these changes. In this workshop, we will present a novel methodological approach to HRI that will: help to identify ELS issues through ethnographic research methods, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, and broaden the scope of existing HRI research while providing concrete tools for addressing these ELS challenges. We aim to introduce ethnographic methods and unfold the benefits and challenges of conducting ethnographic research. We will engage participants through speaker presentations, lightning talks, moderated group discussions, and a group-work session focused on integrating new methods into attendees» own research practices. Workshop topics will draw on the content of selected position papers, centered around how we can use ethnographic methods in HRI research so that we can: better understand users, workplaces, and robots; identify and address ELS issues; and ultimately ensure the design of more ethical, sustainable, and responsible robotics.