Two years ago, in the March / April 2005 issue of Interactions, we provided an introduction to robots and human-robot interaction (HRI). The section was driven by the expansion of robots into everyday life, far beyond their initial applications in manufacturing and logistics. The special section included eleven short articles, each profiling a specific application of robotics including space exploration, assistive technology and social collaboration. The 2005 section, however, focused entirely on research robotics at universities, companies and labs, indicating the level of maturity of the field.

At the time, guest editor Jean Scholtz noted that HRI was expanding rapidly and that HRI researchers had “only a few years to make a difference” on the field as a whole. Certainly, we’ve seen the growth of the field in new conferences, new uses, and new practitioners. Two years later, intelligent systems and robotics have become a bit more common in daily life. Intelligent GPS and navigation systems direct millions of cars, robotic vacuum cleaners scrub the floors of two million homes, and intelligent toys growing in popularity, even with toddlers.

As robots become part of daily life, their development becomes a commercial endeavor rather than a research science. How well do our earlier findings translate to commercial development? What additional tools and techniques are required, now that HRI is leaving the lab an entering the home, the office, or the world-at-large?

In this article, Aaron Powers brings stories from the consumer realm, including how iRobot is using and revising HCI and HRI to apply to commercial robot design. Interestingly, iRobot’s commercial HRI principles echo many of the research findings that were discussed in “Interactions” in 2005: focusing on the social system around the robot rather than on the technology itself, understanding the broader context through observation and intervention, and allowing the human to communicate in natural methods.

One of the core challenges Powers discusses is context – understanding where the robot is, how it affects the context and how the context affects the robot in return. As a solution, iRobot has turned to ethnography to understand how the “robot culture” interacts with the human culture around the robot (in the home, the military, etc).

These studies represent a great step toward the fieldwork Shultz a need for in 2005. Powers’ work also shows the impact that HRI can have on the broader field of robotics, as robotics companies begin to shift their focus toward consumer products.