Toward Building Sociological Robotics: Sociological Studies on Human–Robot Interaction

In this paper, we propose “sociological robotics,” which uses sociological observations and methods for the coexistence of humans, robots, and AI. We have presented two methods and examples of the practice of sociological robotics. Method 1) Create a design principle for a robot based on sociological findings from observing natural human interactions in everyday situations, then design a robot based on this design principle and evaluate the human-robot interactions on this basis. Method 2) Conduct stepwise experiments with a robot/robots in everyday situations, analyze the human–robot interactions, make improvements, and evaluate them.