Towards Considerate Human-Robot Coexistence: A Dual-Space Framework of Robot Design and Human Perception in Healthcare

Abstract

The rapid advancement of robotics, spanning expanded capabilities, more intuitive interaction, and more integration into real-world workflows, is reshaping what it means for humans and robots to coexist. Beyond sharing physical space, this coexistence is increasingly characterized by organizational embeddedness, temporal evolution, social situatedness, and open-ended uncertainty. However, prior work has largely focused on static snapshots of attitudes and acceptance, offering limited insight into how perceptions form and evolve, and what active role humans play in shaping coexistence as a dynamic process. We address these gaps through in-depth follow-up interviews with nine participants from a 14-week co-design study on healthcare robots. We identify the human perception space, including four interpretive dimensions (i.e., degree of decomposition, temporal orientation, scope of reasoning, and source of evidence). We enrich the conceptual framework of human-robot coexistence by conceptualizing the mutual relationship between the human perception space and the robot design space as a co-evolving loop, in which human needs, design decisions, situated interpretations, and social mediation continuously reshape one another over time. Building on this, we propose considerate human-robot coexistence, arguing that humans act not only as design contributors but also as interpreters and mediators who actively shape how robots are understood and integrated across deployment stages.

Figures (2)

• Figure A1: We conceptualize human–robot coexistence as a co-evolving loop between humans and robotic systems. Human needs are articulated into design requirements, which are realized into robotic systems deployed in context. Through deployment and situated interaction, these systems shape human interpretation, which is further propagated via social mediation, feeding back into evolving human needs. This loop highlights the dynamic and reciprocal process through which human–robot coexistence is continuously formed and reshaped over time.
• Figure D1: Robot design and human perception space for human-robot coexistence. On the left, the robot design space captures key system-level considerations, including use scenarios, embodiment, contextual constraints, and technical feasibility. On the right, the human perception space characterizes how stakeholders interpret robots along four interpretive dimensions: degree of decomposition, temporal orientation, scope of reasoning, and source of evidence. These two spaces mutually shape each other over time: design decisions influence situated experiences and interpretations, while human understanding and social mediation inform future design requirements.