Community Robotics: A New Paradigm for Robotic Design and Innovation

This paper introduces Community Robotics, a new paradigm for robotic design and innovation that centres communities as users and stakeholders. Community Robotics involves designing and innovating to create robotic and autonomous systems that work in service of community and for social value. The paper argues that the values and needs of communities are different from traditional enterprises and individual consumers and as such need dedicated consideration by roboticists in the design of robotic and autonomous systems. Different design approaches are also required, with parallels drawn with existing community design and innovation practices from across design disciplines. These practices indicate the importance of including the needs of communities in the design and development of technology more broadly. However, we argue that robotic and autonomous systems are a special case and require separate examination. We propose that research and development into community robotics is relevant across the field of robotics as it works to extend the possible contexts and enrich the research and innovation space, it unlocks additional opportunities for technology and knowledge creation. Finally, we propose a conceptual framework for Community Robotics, applying it to three robotic application scenarios, and suggest research avenues for future work within this new area.