Advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and automation have the potential to transform cities and urban social life. However, robotic restructuring of the city is complicated and contested. Technology is still evolving, robotic infrastructure is expensive and there are technical, trust and safety challenges in bringing robots into dynamic urban environments alongside humans. This article examines the nascent field of ‘urban robotics’ in three emblematic yet diverse national-urban contexts that are leading centres for urban robotic experimentation. Focusing on the experimental application of autonomous social robots, the article explores: (i) the rationale for urban robotic experiments and the interests involved, and (ii) the challenges and outcomes of creating meaningful urban spaces for robotic experimentation. The article makes a distinctive contribution to urban research by illuminating a potentially far-reaching but under-researched area of urban policy. It provides a conceptual framework for mapping and understanding the highly contingent, spatially uneven and socially selective processes of robotic urban experimentation.
Welcome to the UK-RAS White Paper Series on Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS). This is one of the core activities of UK-RAS Network, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). By bringing together academic centres of excellence, industry, government, funding bodies and charities, the Network provides academic leadership, expands collaboration with industry while integrating and coordinating activities at EPSRC funded RAS capital facilities, Centres for Doctoral Training and partner universities.
In contrast to their use in warfare and surveillance, there is growing interest in the potential of "drones for good" to deliver societal benefits, for example by delivering medical products and other essential goods. Yet development of medical and commercial delivery has been limited globally by restrictive regulation to protect airspace safety and security. In this paper we examine how certain African countries have become testbeds for new forms of drone infrastructure and regulation, driven by the overlapping interests of governments, drone operators, and international development agencies. In particular we explore the factors that have led to the development of an advanced medical delivery network in Rwanda and contrast that with the closing down of airspace for drones in Tanzania. The paper makes a distinctive contribution to research on the ongoing constitution of dronespace as a sphere of commercial and governmental activity. Rwanda's drone delivery system is seen as the forerunner for the wider enclosure and parcelling up of the lower atmosphere into designated drone corridors that limit the democratic and disruptive potential of drone activity in line with prevailing logics of airspace regulation.
Recent cultural branding efforts by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to promote generationally-transmitted traditional artisanship as a Japanese pseudobiological resource and the core of Japanese national soul follows this pattern, According to METI, A reflection on craftsmanship can yield insights into the sensibilities of the Japanese, because tangible objects embody the traditional spirit of the Japanese. And as this spirit is transmitted from generation to generation, it continues to imbue the process of artisanship. 22 Japanese traditional crafts (kōgei) are promoted by the government as the embodiment of the Japanese spirit. This view hails back to nihonjinron texts, particularly the mingei (folk crafts) movement of the 1930s and writings on Japanese aesthetics. 23 The artisanship system emphasizes skill and technique -the intangible aspects of manufacturing -allowing abundant interpretative possibilities in top-down decisions on the cultural, national, and historical value of cultural products. Persons are secondary to this process as carriers of generationally transmitted skills. While persons and products are perceived as dynamic and transformative, the artisanship lineage, expressed in the term DNA, represents the historical continuity of the Japanese spirit.Robots also are part of monozukuri and its nihonjinron underlining. The University of Tokyo, for instance, features a web article with a telling title Japan: the Land of Rising Robotics, subtitled Japan, the World's Leading "Robot Nation" which states that "in recent years, robotics has been the driving force behind Japan's monozukuri culture." 24 Rather than a photograph of a robot, the article includes one of a craft-maker hand-cutting kiriko (cut) glass. An official Fujitsu blog asks "can a robot follow the precepts of monozukuri?" The answer is yes, "because humans build and program them." 25 Japanese manufacturers are expected to assert their important global position and uniqueness to ensure their global market competitiveness and the country's socioeconomic welfare amid the current fourth industrial revolution (driven by robots). As it rapidly transforms society and work, technology integrates with sociocultural identity. Kaplan (2004) refers to this process as the "taming of technology" by which once foreign technologies, including robots, are "mastered and harmoniously integrated in society" without losing cultural essence. 26 In 2011, the Chairman of Toyota, Fujio Cho, was quoted as asserting that the company's goal was to "preserve the Japanese monozukuri." 27 This urgent agenda arises from the need to reinvigorate the economy and domestic industry following the economic stagnation of the past several decades, and which robots are envisioned to solve. This is apparent in METI's Robot Revolution policy that embraces robot technologies as a solution to a declining birth rate, shrinking labor force, and aging society. The promotion of robots also is in line with Shinzō Abe's anti-immigrant politics. 28 In 2014 ME...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.