Participatory design in human-robot interaction research: a systematic review

Participatory Design (PD) approaches for robot design offer promising avenues for enhancing technological innovation and aligning Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) systems with user needs. Despite their potential, there is a lack of a comprehensive overview of how these approaches have been utilized within the field of HRI. This article presents a systematic review of the literature on how PD is applied in the design of HRI systems, highlighting its advantages and challenges. Data were collected by reviewing 102 selected articles published from 2008 to 2024 in leading scientific databases for robotics. We summarize and classify the selected PD studies based on stakeholder participation, methods, and outcomes, among other aspects. We also report on the contributions of PD methodologies to key HRI issues, including ethical challenges, robot autonomy, and human-robot conflicts. Findings show a growing number of HRI researchers using PD approaches, particularly in the context of social robots for healthcare and assistive services. However, we also found that a perspective where robots are considered the solution to every problem, without fully understanding the realities of the target community, is still prevalent and that some aspects of PD, such as equalizing power relations, situated-based action, and long-term stakeholder engagement, are often overlooked.