Social Robots at the Digital Day Baselland 2018

Experiencing digital together at FHNW

Digitalisation is among the biggest transformations that a society could go through. On 25.10.2018, everyone across 12 Swiss cities was invited to join various events and workshops to explore the possibilities of the digital world as well as address its undeniable challenges.

Organized by the Digitalswitzerland, the national Digital Day 2018 gathered thousands of people from various professional backgrounds. Most importantly, the event offered the perfect opportunity for the public to get to know the most innovative change makers and companies as well as get their hands on various latest digital solutions.

In the Basel area, the Impact Hub Basel set up the Digital Day Baselland 2018 at the School of Design FHNW. There, among other regional companies and universities, we had the pleasure to introduce the FHNW Robo-Lab to the public and contribute with our vision of Switzerland as the future global innovation hub.

Getting social with social robots

Naturally, we had also brought our friends – social robots – Einstein, NAO, and Pepper. The public loved getting to know them and was curious to learn about their potential for our daily lives. For example, one of the explored topics was that of robots in teaching. We also appreciate that we got to have some interesting discussions with a few skeptics.

Depending on their level of confidence, visitors could ask Einstein to look up facts about famous people online. In turn, with Pepper, they could interact more obtaining information about the day’s agenda and floor plan. Moreover, Pepper was also able to explain its purpose at the FHNW Robo-Lab as well as the project itself. Finally, the most enthusiastic visitors happily joined NAO’s yoga demonstrations right there at the booth. What  great fun that was!

In conclusion, getting to know first-hand the public’s excitements and concerns related to robots definitely wasa highlight and we believe that such events are very valuable not only for the public but also for us as researchers.