The integration of robots into our daily lives is rapidly progressing, with a projected market growth of 18.1% for security and surveillance robots by 2025. Beyond security, policy changes may soon encourage the use of robots for delivery and care services. But what happens when these advanced machines, often perceived as impersonal bureaucracies, enter our shared public spaces?
A recent talk at the American Society for Public Administration 2025 Annual Conference, presented by Samanta Varela Castro, a Postdoctoral Fellow at TIPI, delves into this very question: “What are the main changes robots can produce in street-level interactions given that they are spatial and socio-technical artifacts?”
The Robot as a “Street-Level Bureaucrat”
Traditional bureaucracy is characterized by limited discretion and impersonal interactions. However, when robots act as “street-level bureaucrats,” a new frontier emerges. While existing research on street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) and AI has explored aspects like discretion, enforcement styles, and decision-making, the physical presence of a robot introduces new dynamics. As Varela Castro highlights, “The robot is the message: interfaces of form, sound, movement”. This means the robot’s physical form and how it moves and sounds all contribute to how humans perceive and interact with it.
Understanding Interactions in Open Spaces
The study utilized a theoretical perspective based on Hernes’ (2004) concept of the spatial construction of organization. This framework suggests that people create a “loosely coupled form of organizing in open spaces through meaning-making processes,” which involves socially binding (ordering) and setting boundaries.
To gather insights, PhD students conducted 66 interviews on a university campus, asking individuals about their feelings and experiences when seeing or interacting with robots.
Key Findings: Acceptance, Empathy, and the Need for Public Values
The results of the study revealed several compelling points:
- People are generally willing to interact with robots, accept them, and may even feel empathy towards them.
- For robots to be widely accepted, they must respect public values.
- Significantly, trust is directed at the formal organization deploying the robot, rather than the robot itself.
Policy Implications for a Robotic Future
These findings carry important implications for the development and deployment of robots in public spaces:
- There is variation in different aspects of human-robot interactions.
- Considerations around robot ethics and transparency are crucial.
- Most importantly, citizens need to be involved in the design process of these robotic systems.
As robots become increasingly common in our shared environments, understanding and actively shaping these interactions will be key to fostering a future where humans and robots can coexist effectively and harmoniously.
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation grant (#2219236) titled GCR: Community-Embedded Robotics: Understanding Sociotechnical Interactions with Long-Term Autonomous Deployments.