Socio-Technical Qualitative Research in Human Robot Interaction

The study of human factors, interaction aspects, and societal issues is an important part of human robot interaction (HRI) research. Qualitative research methods and procedures are well suited to these aims. However, there is room for improvement in the quality of their applications and outcomes in HRI research. Researchers often borrow qualitative methods from social sciences, attempt to adapt them, and risk incomplete inquires and poor applications in HRI. This tutorial will introduce socio-technical grounded theory (STGT), a modern version of the social science grounded theory methods customised to study socio-technical domains such as HRI, where human and interaction aspects are closely intertwined with the technical aspects. The tutorial will equip HRI researchers with foundational knowledge and skills to boost their qualitative research applications and share examples and resources to enable them to produce rich findings and robust outcomes.