Apurahat ja residenssipaikat

Tiede

Intergroup Contact via Telepresence Robots

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

The proposed research investigates how robots can facilitate contact between groups in conflict who are unable to meet face-to-face. It uses a multidisciplinary approach, combining communication and media studies, social psychology, art, design, and robot engineering with one principal objective: reducing prejudice between groups. Telepresence robots (robots that are remotely operated by humans) are increasingly used in social situations, from public services such as health care and education to the private sector in working places and residential homes. New demands for robotic avatars also surfaced in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, where physical distancing is imposed on society. Driven by the dire need for innovative solutions to the violent, long-term conflict in my home country, Israel, with its Arab neighbors, the proposed research examines the viability of telepresence robots as a new tool for intergroup conflict resolution. From this extreme use-case, wider-scale lessons regarding social robot design, physical interaction, and mediated communication can be acquired and applied in other contexts of social relations. This research comprises of four publications over four years: 1) The first robotic telepresence contact hypothesis: A conceptual article theorizing on the conditions required for a positive robot-mediated encounter between groups in conflict. 2) Make your robotic avatar: A novel design for a participatory workshop toolkit, enabling an inexperienced user to fabricate their robotic avatar and use it to contact the opposing group. 3) The first field test for robotic telepresence contact in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, documented and analyzed. 4) An aggregating and concluding dissertation. The research builds on lessons learned from my MA thesis, the soft robotic telepresence HITODAMA, which showed promising results in mediating conversations between Finnish locals and immigrants.

The thesis introduces a new method of peacebuilding with technology: participatory telerobotic puppetry. When opposing social groups are in a state of an intractable conflict, a conflict that becomes deeply rooted in culture and the identity of the groups, technology can be seen as a tool for reconciliation. However, technological interventions often remain in the virtual realm and do not drive long-term collective action toward peace. I argue that technology should be used more creatively and in a participatory manner to address intractable conflicts and demonstrate this in the field of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I start by proposing the use of remote-controlled robots, or ‘telerobots’, as a communication tool for peacebuilding that maintains a physical connection to the land. After an extensive review of the fields of social psychology and human-robot interaction, as well as a survey in Israel and Palestine, I propose involving participants from conflicting groups in the creation of a robotic puppet theater that can be performed simultaneously in two locations. Puppets have the unique ability to represent two narratives simultaneously, that of a character and that of the puppeteer who is bound to the puppet in an emotional connection. Using robots as puppets rather than avatars enables a collective ritual of "radical empathy" across borders.
As part of the thesis, I developed an open-source toolkit for the creation of a telerobotic puppet theater and applied it in a participatory workshop with Israeli Jews and Palestinians from the Tech2Peace organization. The results showed that theater production can facilitate the discussion of the conflict in a playful and educational environment and expose new audiences to a meaningful encounter with the opposing group. The thesis also includes guidelines for future ‘boundary crossing’ workshops and an account of a follow-up intervention that was carried out in response to the war that began on October 7, 2023.

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