Why Robots Need Clothes: Safety, Style and a Sense of Shame
First created more than 100,000 years ago, clothing is one of the earliest and most culturally significant inventions of humankind. It not only protects people from the environment, but also signals their social status, membership in a community and their role.
According to a new study from Cornell University (New York), as robots increasingly leave labs and factory floors and enter our everyday lives, a revolution in clothing may soon happen again.
In the paper "What Robots Want From Clothes", presented at the 2021 Designing Interactive Systems conference, the authors write: "We believe that robot clothing represents an underused opportunity in interactive systems design. Clothing will help robots get better: it will make them useful in new and broader contexts, or help them adapt and function better in the contexts where they already operate."
“I started by looking at how different materials would look on robots and thought about the legibility of this detail, for example, what a robot's intention is depending on how its materials look. From that point, I began thinking about all the social functions of clothing for people and how this could affect the perception of the robot”
Robots of the future may wear white button-down shirts and black bow ties while serving snacks at a party, or wear striped lollipop-patterned outfits while working as nurses. But it is not simply a matter of throwing human clothing onto a robotic chassis. People's clothing is inseparably linked to their needs. It should similarly meet the needs of robots, rather than just being human clothing on a robot.
Robot clothing can take any number of forms, depending on the specific function of its owner. Firefighting robots, such as Thermite from Howe and Howe, could theoretically be given heat-resistant coverings that resemble human ones but with thermochromic ink applied. The robot's operator could then easily visually determine the ambient temperature or see that the robot is at risk of overheating.
Or the reverse: search-and-rescue robots could wear waterproof clothing for operations in the ocean, then attach to extra-durable boots to search for lost hikers in mountainous terrain or search for survivors after a building collapse.
“I think this work is important for helping engineers and technologists understand the functional importance of aesthetics and signals in design. This is not just "fashion": what a robot wears helps people understand how to interact with it in ways that are critical for safety and task completion”
Using interchangeable clothing could lead to more universal robot designs, since the specific capabilities provided by clothing do not have to be built into the robot's structure. Creating a new robot is harder than creating new clothing. Perhaps clothing will influence robot design, and robot design will influence clothing.
For example, the Pepper robot has an online store offering a wide selection of suits and outfits, including clothing that signifies cultural, national, professional and religious affiliations.
Robot clothing is not only for their benefit; it also serves to demystify and humanize these devices in the eyes of the people they work with.
The researchers believe: "The need for modesty to cover nakedness stems from anthropomorphic whimsy, since robots are not embarrassed by the wires sticking out of them. Nevertheless, both humanoid and non-humanoid robots have pragmatic reasons to maintain a clean, enclosed aesthetic, since exposed wires pose a real risk to operation. Any pulled or cut wire will lead to a loss of power, which can be dangerous for the robot and for people or objects in the environment."
However, dressing robots can be problematic, especially if the style of clothing has cultural origins. The researchers noted that the first cannabis dispensary to dress an automated salesperson in Rastafarian clothing would immediately make headlines. And it would look no different than equipping a Roomba with a Native American headdress.
Despite the potential drawbacks of putting pants on robots, it may help make the research field more attractive to a new generation of roboticists.
“I like thinking about girls in robotics. When they are young, I think robotics seems really intimidating to them, but I see clothing as a way to welcome the stereotypically feminine skills that women have. I see clothing as a way to attract girls to robotics”
