Broader Impacts

Broader Impacts: Robots and Roboticists

Robots are embodied systems, meaning that they physically interact and change the world. This assignment spanning the semester asks you to introspect, discuss, and reflect on a robot of your choice, the engineers behind that robot, and the people or environment that robot acts on. In particular, this assignment asks you:

How does [this robot] affect you? the environment? society?

Part 1: Introspection

Due Sept 30, 2025

In this assignment, I’m asking you to select a robot that you’ll be thinking about over the course of the semester. The definition of “robot” here can be expansive – any technological system that can sense and physically respond to stimuli can be considered a robot for this assignment (so, an automated HVAC system is just as fair game as a Boston Dynamics Atlas as an industrial car manufacturing arm). When selecting your robot, consider the following:

  • Is this robot one that will hold your attention throughout the semester?
  • Is this robot one that you would be interested in talking about with your peers in this class?
  • Does this robot exist in an industry or environment that you also want to learn more about; or is it manufactured / maintained by a company / person you’d like to know more about?
  • When you think about this robot, do any strong feelings (positive or negative) come up for you?
  • Since this is a computation-oriented class; does this robot feature “intelligent” behaviors?

Once you have selected your robot, create an artifact to share with the class and instructor team that examines the following:

  • Introduce the robot – e.g., what is it called, what does it look like, who makes it?
  • Explain the robot – e.g., what does it do? where does it do it? what goal does the entity that makes it have?
  • React to the robot – e.g., have you encountered this robot? what feelings does it elicit from you?
  • Assess the robot – e.g., how proficient is the robot at its task? can it be used for other tasks? how does it impact the places / people it interacts with?

An artifact is any physical (e.g., sticky-note canvas; sketch model), virtual (e.g., powerpoint presentation; webpage), or mixed-media object that captures your thinking and learning process as you discover more about your robot. You are free to choose any way you want to represent your literature search, media deep dive, and brainstorming, but please keep in mind that the final artifact will be reviewed by the teaching team, who will be looking for elements of introduction, explanation, reaction, and assessment.

You are strongly encouraged to pull in academic literature, popular media, imagery, videos, and text-based resources as you create your artifact. Remember to cite your sources and provide media credits when appropriate.

To submit this assignment, upload a document containing your artifact or provide a link to your artifact (if you make a physical object, please submit image(s) or video(s) of your artifact) to Canvas. You will be assessed on completeness (2 points) and presence of each of the 4 prompts (introduction, explanation, reaction, and assessment; 2 points each) for a total of 10 points. It is expected that this assignment should take ~6-10 hrs to complete.

We will then present artifacts in class; your presentation and participation in small group discussions will account for another 10 points.

Tips for Selecting Your Robot

We will be talking about these robots a lot this semester; we can’t stress enough that you’ll want to pick a robot that is interesting to you, you think might be interesting to your peers, and one that is well-documented (so you have resources to draw on throughout the semester). Some examples of robots that at least meet the latter criteria include:

  • A class of industrial robot with many different instantiations, for instance: “warehouse robots” (e.g., Kiva systems, Amazon warehouses, Berkshire Gray Flexbots, Vecna robots, Locus robots), “self-driving robots” (e.g., Cruise, Waymo, Aurora)
  • A particular historical or long-lived robot, for instance: autonomous underwater vehicle ABE or Sentry, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, Mars rover Curiousity
  • Everday robots, for instance: modern HVAC systems, industrial manufacturing plants

You will likely enjoy this project more, if your robot or class of robot also has these features:

  • “Intelligence” or decision-making authority (not just a purely rote autonomous system)
    • Alternatively, if the lack of decision-making authority, in the context the robot is used, is precisely why it is interesting, then that’s great too!
  • A context that you find interesting/want to learn more about (for instance, if you’re excited about construction, you might choose to study the Reframe Systems robot; or if you’d like to learn about medical robots, perhaps the Davinci robot would be interesting to you)
  • A human-robot interaction angle (whether that means that humans and robots co-exist in context, or there is potential for a deeper societal implication)

Examples of robots selected during CompRobo 2024 included:

Part 2: Discussion

Due Nov 4, 2025

Like any technological system, a robot can carry different meaning or connotation to different people; and like any implemented infrastructure, the impact of a robot can vary across contexts, individuals, and cultures. In Phase 1, we had the opportunity pick a robot and present it to a small group + hear about other robot systems. This assignment asks you to go deeper in these discussions, and do the following:

  • Perform deeper research on your robot, iterating from Phase 1 questions and feedback, and your own reflections from those discussions
  • Define an aspect of your robot that has “gray” implications (whether this is about a specific design decision and how it impacts intended use, the typical market for the robot, weighing opportunities with potential costs, public perception, etc.)
  • Lead an advanced (socio)technical discussion about your robot and its “gray” facet with peers

The aim of this assignment is to (1) practice presenting technical systems to an audience of peers, (2) practice leading an open-ended discussion, and (3) challenge your own or others’ perspectives about your chosen robot.

Logistics

We will reserve an in-class day to get into small groups of ~3 people for the discussion period. Everyone will present on this day. An attempt will be made to provide teams with external monitors for presenting in their clusters, but it is recommended that teams potentially bring their own external monitors, or individual be prepared to display visual material on their laptop screens.

Preparation / Materials

Please prepare an ~5-8 minute slide-based presentation about your robot, focusing on technical and sociotechnical details about your system (with the “gray” area clearly specified) and at least 3 discussion prompts. Your presentations will be in a relatively informal setting (sitting around a project table together with your audience); with that in mind, your slide-deck should be complete and informational, but your presentation style can be conversational. You can re-visit topics covered in class, or build new materials based on your additional research about your robot.

Discussion

Every individual will have 15 minutes total per session, so an ~7-10 minute open-ended discussion, seeded by the prompts, will follow from the prepared slides. You may structure the discussion in whatever way you wish (see suggestions below).

Post-Discussion

Following the discussion, you and everyone in your group will have ~5 minutes to fill in a “reaction” survey provided by the teaching team that will capture for each person: (1) what is currently on their mind, if the discussion were to continue, (2) moments of surprise that arose during the presentation or discussion, and (3) the next question they would ask in a discussion. These surveys will be provided to each of the discussion leaders for that day. Any artifacts created during a discussion (e.g., white board writing, sticky notes, etc.) will be photographed / captured in some way as well.

Grading

Please submit your slide-deck, discussion prompts, and any discussion artifacts (if applicable). The teaching team will already have a copy of the reaction surveys. This assignment will be graded on depth and completeness, worth 20 points – 5 points for a complete and appropriately scoped slide deck, 2 points for the prompts generated for discussion, 3 points for leading a discussion in class, and 10 points for (socio)technical depth added to your Phase 1 discussion. It is expected that it will take you ~6-10hrs to create your presentation and prompts.

For Your Consideration

During this discussion, you will be the “technical expert” about your chosen robot; thus the content for a discussion should be around the implications of your robot system – how does this robot impact individuals, its environment, society at large? A productive discussion will investigate new perspectives about a robot, highlight areas where more research / thinking may need to be done, and tease out some of the complicated nuance that always surrounds the adoption of complex technological systems. To that end, when preparing your presentation and discussion prompts, consider the following:

  • What story do you want to tell about your robot?
  • What aspects of introduction, explanation, reaction, and assessment do you want to include in your presentation? In your discussion?
  • What feelings will your presentation or discussion elicit? Is this your intent?
  • What perspectives are you potentially missing in your contemplation about your robot?
  • Are you willing to be challenged on a perspective you hold about your robot?
  • Are you providing enough context in your presentation to inform a holistic discussion?
  • What are your goals for the discussion? How will you know it was productive conversation?

Leading a discussion is an art and science, and there is no one “right” way to lead a discussion. You are welcome to adopt a strategy that suits you and your learning goals for your time with your group. You might consider adopting one of the following strategies:

  • Open-ended dialog: a primarily talking-oriented, free-form conversation gently prompted or moderated
  • Structured dialog: invite each member of the group, in turn, to respond to a prompt; leave room after everyone has had a chance to share for any additional commentary
  • Generative dialog: collaborate on an artifact to spur conversation or capture thoughts; e.g., have each person brain dump ideas spurred by a prompt onto sticky notes, share them, and sort them together into themes

Part 3: Reflection

Due Dec 12, 2025

This part of the assignment provides an opportunity to consider how you, as an engineer, will build systems that affect you, the environment, and society. It will be submitted on Canvas. You are asked to prepare two artifacts:

Written Reflection

A 1-page (minimum) written reflection (12pt font, single spacing, Times New Roman, 1” margins) that examines the following questions (these should look somewhat familiar…but we’re now considering you, rather than just the robot you’ve been contemplating):

  • Introduce yourself – e.g., who are you, as a person and/or engineer? what is your background?
  • Explain yourself – e.g., why did you enroll in CompRobo? why is engineering interesting to you? what problems do you want to solve?
  • React to “robots” – e.g., following this course and your Broader Impacts discussions, what do you think about your chosen robot? about other robots discussed? what feelings or thoughts do these systems elicit?
  • Assess yourself – e.g., how has your thinking changed (or not) about your robot / robots generally over the course of the semester? what questions do you still have about your robot / robots? would you work on your robot or one like this? under what conditions? why or why not?
  • Resolve – e.g., what will you takeaway from CompRobo, and from this assignment?

Your written response need not map to these 5 prompts exactly. You are encouraged to highlight specific anecdotes or artifacts throughout the semester to illustrate your points, draw on course materials, mention or cite other robots you learned about from peers, and use other external resources that you find inspiring or illuminating. Please cite any sources you may choose to include. The assignment is graded on completion, clarity, and depth and is worth 20 points as a whole. It is anticipated that this assignment may take ~4-6hrs to complete.

An Ethics and Responsible Use Statement

Please prepare a statement on the ethical and responsible use of your robot, as though you were a member of the team developing the system.

There are a few different ways to approach this, for instance:

  • Use the framing on “statement of potential negative societal impacts” based on this work from CVPR. We expect that Section 3 won’t apply to everyone, but if it does, please address that as well.
  • Create a version of a model card for your robotic system. Some robotics-oriented headings to add may be related to hardware requirements, use of open-source or closed-source elements within your implementation, and so on. Feel free to use this as a basis for your statement; you don’t need to shoe-horn your system directly into the presented format.
  • Review ethical guidelines from several industry companies (e.g., Boston Dynamics) and model your statement after their frameworks (or your own critiques of their frameworks).

In general, your statement(s) should highlight your principles and philosophies on responsible use for the technique or system you have studied. This is your opportunity to coalesce the research you’ve done and the conversations you’ve had into a professional format legible to others in the robotics industry. While completing your statement, do consider the balance between the positive aspects of your techniques and the possible negative implications if intended use were violated.