Podcast on Inclusive Research and Innovation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics · Dr. Claudia Werker

Exploring Inclusive Robots: Future of Work

July 10, 2024·26 min·2 clips

Nurses and management broke their silence on technology's real impact, revealing hidden fears and challenges in healthcare innovation.

Claudia Werker, an Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology, hosts this episode on inclusive research in STEM. Her guest is David Ebbing, a full professor specializing in haptic human-robot interaction across two faculties at the same university. David Ebbing's research shifted from a disciplinary focus on human-machine interaction to the future of work about three years ago. His current work explores how to integrate diverse academic and practical knowledge into technology development for workplaces. A major goal is giving workers, like nurses or cleaners, a genuine creative voice in developing technological assistance. He describes a project at the Erasmus Medical Center working with nurses to address labor shortages. The team engaged nurses in a three-month, transdisciplinary process involving engineers, designers, and social scientists. This approach led to open discussions where nurses expressed fears that new technology might simply increase their workload, while management acknowledged scaling challenges. Ebbing also mentions work in male-dominated fields like engine repair, where skilled older workers face physical strain. The hope is that assistive robotics could reduce physical demands, potentially opening such jobs to a more diverse workforce, including women or older individuals. Another study on baggage handlers revealed workers take great pride in their skilled, timely work. A key insight is that standardizing work for efficiency through robotics can risk making jobs boring, undermining worker happiness and pride. Ebbing argues for broadening research to consider what makes work fulfilling, not just more efficient. He learned that engaging workers throughout the entire research process, not just in interviews, reveals rich perspectives on what constitutes good work. The process fostered a "positive feedback loop" where mutual learning and genuine interest led to greater openness between researchers and nurses. He finds this transdisciplinary work requires significant personal reflection and development, making it a deeply enriching though slower experience than traditional research. For Ebbing, true inclusion means ensuring everyone involved feels at home in the collaborative process. The tone is conversational and reflective, with a strong educational focus on research methodologies. The style is interview-based, delving into a professor's personal research evolution and project anecdotes. Listeners interested in ethical technology design, participatory research methods, and the human aspects of robotics will find this episode valuable. Those seeking technical specifications on robot design or fast-paced innovation stories might find it less aligned with their interests.

As heard by us

Human-robot interaction is treated as a practical work and inclusion problem, not just a technology story.

The episode frames human-robot interaction as a work-design question as much as a technology story. David Ebbing moves from sensory-motor control into human-robot interaction, then broadens the focus until the real issue is how innovation holds up inside institutions, especially…

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Why you'd press play

You want robots discussed as work design, not a glossy demo.

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