- ReThinking Care Robotics

RethiCare (funded by VolkswagenStiftung) (begin 2019)

RethiCare (Rethinking Care Robotics) is led by the HCI group and is a joint interdisciplinary project with BUW's Product Design area (Prof. Wolfgang Sattler), the University of Southern Denmarks Robotics group at The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute (Prof. Norbert Krüger) and sociologist Dr. Andreas Bischof at TU Chemnitz. RethiCare will explore the design space of non-anthropormorphic, robotic helper machines and devices (which, for instance, integrate with everyday objects and furniture) for the context of care homes. It started April 2019, with 3 years funding, and was extended until early 2023. 

To re-shape research and design practices and to develop alternative visions for robots in care, new interdisciplinary collaborations and new methods of design and evaluation are needed. The project's interdisciplinary constellation will enable us to re-think from the ground up what care-robotics should look like and ‘do’, using contemporary design methods in a rapid prototyping, design-driven approach. It will apply a user-centered, creative design and development approach in close collaboration with users (2 care institutions as associated partners), guided by principles of universal design, flanked with an integrated science-technology-studies perspective.  (University Press-Statement)
-> Project Website

  • Graf, Zarp, Naik, Lefeuvre, Marchetti, Hornecker, Sørensen, Hemmingsen, Christensen, Bodenhagen, Krüger, Bischof. Distributed Agency in HRI -An Exploratory Study of a Narrative Robot Design. Frontiers in Robotics and AI. Sec. Human-Robot Interaction. Vol. 11 - 2024. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2024.1253466
  • Kollakidou, Lefeuvre,  Sønderskov Zarp-Falden, Malbois, Bodenhagen, Krüger, Hornecker. Bibo the Moving Cup for People Affected by Dementia: Design, Ethical Considerations, and First Observations in Use. SN Computer Science. 4:432 (2023). link 
  • Schulte, Hornecker. Care Stories: Understanding People’s Hopes and Fears for Technologies of Care through Story Elicitation. Proc. Academic Mindtrek 2022. ACM 117–128.  ACM DL. 
  • Marchetti, Grimme, Hornecker, Kollakidou, Graf. Pet-Robot or Appliance? Care Home Residents with Dementia Respond to a Zoomorphic Floor Washing Robot. Proc. of CHI 2022, ACM DL. 
  • Bischof, Hornecker, Graf, Franzkowiak. Integrierte Roboterentwicklung für die Pflege. Konzeptuelle und praktische Herausforderungen am Beispiel ReThiCare. TATuP – Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice,  Vol. 31 No. 1 2022 pp. 48-54 
  • Hornecker, Krummheuer, Bischof,  Rehm. Beyond dyadic HRI: building robots for society. interactions 29, 3 (May - June 2022), 48–53. ACM DL. 
  • Bischof, Hornecker, Krummheuer, Rehm. Re-Configuring Human-Robot Interaction. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '22). IEEE Press, 1234–1236. 
  • Graf, Lefeuvre, Palinko, Naik, Zarp, Bischof, Hornecker, Krüger. Fostering well-being in care with the nautical designed Plant Watering Robot. Proc. HUCAPP'22. 
  • Lefeuvre, Graf, Hornecker. Designing A Robot for Elderly Care Homes based on the Notion of 'Robot as Theatre'. Pictorial. Proc. Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2021). ACM, pp 242–251. ACM DL 
  • Kollakidou, Lefeuvre, Sønderskov Zarp, Palinko, Krüger, Hornecker. Bibo the dancing cup: Reminding people suffering from dementia to drink. Proc. of ICT for Health, Accessibility and Wellbeing (IC-IHAW 2021), Springer
  • Grimme, Kollakidou, Sønderskov Zarp, Hornecker, Kruger, Marchetti. Don’t be afraid! Design of a playful cleaning robot for people with dementia. Proc. of ICT for Health, Accessibility and Wellbeing (IC-IHAW 2021), Springer
  • Palinko, Graf, Naik, Lefeuvre, Zarp, Krüger. Intention Signaling for Mobile Social Service Robots – The Example of Plant Watering. Proc. of Social Robotics. ICSR 2021. Springer  LNCS. 10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_74.
  • Schulte, Graf, Franzkowiak, Hornecker. Hospital beds, robot priests and huggables:  a (fictional) review of commercially available care robots. Proc. ACM NordiCHI 2020. Article No.: 43  ACM DL. 
  • Hornecker, Bischof, Graf, Franzkowiak, Krüger. The Interactive Enactment of Care Technologies and its Implications for Human-Robot-Interaction in Care. Proc. ACM NordiCHI 2020. Article No.: 78  ACM DL.  

Re-thinking CareRobots (Planning Grant), VolkswagenStiftung

In January 2018 we received a small grant from VolkswagenStiftung aimed to support preparation for a full funding proposal on 'rethinking care robotics' (which was successful). As part of the preparations, we (Prof. Sattler, Product Design program and us) co-taught a student project on technology in care. Our future project partners traveled to Weimar for proposal discussions, and were also invited into the student project and for the Bauhaus.Interaction Colloqium, all helping us to immerse deeper into the topic. We also attended a conference on care technology ('Zukunft der Pflege') in Oldenburg with the entire project group, which was a great experience for all.