Imagine you are strolling across a public campus and you suddenly and unexpectedly come across a yellow, four-legged robot. You look around but can't immediately see anyone who seems to be responsible for the device. How do you behave, what do you think? This is exactly what we wanted to find out in a recently completed field test of the rokit project, which was also reported on by Deutschlandfunk, much to our delight. In the experiment, the robot "dog" spent a few hot July hours moving around the canteen forecourt in Magdeburg to carry out inspections of buildings, at least apparently. So far so ordinary, you would think, given that we are living in the year 2024. However, there was one subtle peculiarity: the robot moved completely autonomously in public spaces, i.e. without barriers and without remote control. This made it possible for us to observe unplanned and therefore - in contrast to laboratory research - natural reactions to such a device.

In order to be able to record these reactions completely, months of preparatory work were initially necessary in the project. On the one hand, a special camera solution was developed to enable GDPR-compliant video recordings in public. On the other hand, mobile annotation software was devised to enable human-robot encounters to be coded in real time by trained observers. In addition, measures had to be taken to comply with strict safety precautions and special authorisation had to be obtained.

In addition to analysing the observation data, the project is now conducting further research into the framework conditions under which robots should and can be used in public spaces. For more information, please contact Paul Schweidler.