{"id":4054,"date":"2025-01-23T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=4054"},"modified":"2024-12-06T11:17:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T10:17:01","slug":"why-robot-embodiment-matters-questions-of-disability-race-and-intersectionality-in-the-design-of-social-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2025\/01\/23\/why-robot-embodiment-matters-questions-of-disability-race-and-intersectionality-in-the-design-of-social-robots\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Robot Embodiment Matters: Questions of Disability, Race and Intersectionality in the Design of Social Robots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Article Summary by Mark Paterson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unlike AI, smart speakers, or industrial robots, the way social robots look, how they appear and interact with us, really <em>matters<\/em> because social robots are specifically made to work with people. There are engineers with good intentions who are designing robots to assist people. These assistive robots are designed to help children and adults with autism, older adults with dementia, people that need help with feeding, and so on. Disability robotics, that is, the robots designed to assist those with disabilities, is going to be an increasingly large market worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>One problem at the moment is that the way these robots are designed\u2014how their bodies are shaped, how their outer surface or \u2018skin\u2019 appears, and even how they move\u2014follows ideas that are derived from historically embedded imaginations of artificial people from European culture, stretching back from Greek myths, classical Roman poetry, nineteenth century novels, and early twentieth century plays and films. Most existing robots, apart from robots in Japan and Korea, have been designed in their image. This has been called the \u2018engineered imaginary\u2019. Over the past few years, a number of researchers have noticed that most robots seem to look white and able-bodied. This does not reflect the complex social reality of those who need the help of robots, where increasingly our society is becoming diverse in terms of racial identity and both visible and nonvisible needs and disabilities. So why aren\u2019t robots designed to look, move, and interact in more inclusive ways? Ultimately, I ask: how can robots be made to include *everyone* so they can truly help all kinds of people?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the author discuss the article below:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4054-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2024\/12\/Paterson-Mark-Why-Robot-Embodiment-Matters-Questions-of-Disability-Race-and-Intersectionality-in-the-Design-of-Social-Robots.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2024\/12\/Paterson-Mark-Why-Robot-Embodiment-Matters-Questions-of-Disability-Race-and-Intersectionality-in-the-Design-of-Social-Robots.mp3\">https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2024\/12\/Paterson-Mark-Why-Robot-Embodiment-Matters-Questions-of-Disability-Race-and-Intersectionality-in-the-Design-of-Social-Robots.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Read the article on <a href=\"https:\/\/mh.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2024\/11\/25\/medhum-2024-013028\"><strong>the <em>Medical Humanities<\/em> journal website<\/strong><\/a>.<\/h3>\n<p><!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article Summary by Mark Paterson Unlike AI, smart speakers, or industrial robots, the way social robots look, how they appear and interact with us, really matters because social robots are specifically made to work with people. There are engineers with good intentions who are designing robots to assist people. These assistive robots are designed to [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2025\/01\/23\/why-robot-embodiment-matters-questions-of-disability-race-and-intersectionality-in-the-design-of-social-robots\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15028,15047],"tags":[15044],"class_list":["post-4054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal-announcements","category-special-issues","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Robot Embodiment Matters: Questions of Disability, Race and Intersectionality in the Design of Social Robots - Medical Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mark Paterson explores the significance of the appearance of social robots.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=4054\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Robot Embodiment Matters: Questions of Disability, Race and Intersectionality in the Design of Social Robots - Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Paterson explores the significance of the appearance of social robots.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=4054\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-23T09:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Pak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Pak\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4054#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4054\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Pak\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0e11c1a9a0f1f9f2aa898a719652c44c\"},\"headline\":\"Why Robot Embodiment Matters: Questions of Disability, Race and Intersectionality in the Design of Social Robots\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-23T09:00:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4054\"},\"wordCount\":318,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Journal Announcements\",\"Special Issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4054#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4054\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4054\",\"name\":\"Why Robot Embodiment Matters: Questions of Disability, Race and Intersectionality in the Design of Social Robots - 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