RuhrBots: Citizen-Centered and User-Friendly Social Robots in the Municipal Administrations of the Ruhr Metropolis

The use of social robots offers numerous opportunities to address the challenges of demographic change in sectors such as public administration and the hospitality industry, to reduce the workload on staff, and to improve the quality of services at the same time.

In the “RuhrBots” project, an interdisciplinary team is researching the needs-based and diversity-sensitive deployment of social robots in public administration institutions and commercial sectors such as the restaurant and hotel industries. Particular emphasis is placed on concrete support services and institutional sustainability.

To sustainably harness the potential of social robotics as an integral and human-centered component in public institutions and commercial service sectors, the TMDT is focusing on the following in the “RuhrBots” project:

• identifying and testing applications for social robots that are tailored to diversity and user needs,
• analyzing additional fields of application and examples of best practices,
• developing business models that take into account the specific characteristics of the various application areas, and
• developing and validating a sustainability concept to ensure the project’s long-term impact.

The goal of “RuhrBots” is to create opportunities for sustainable further development beyond the application areas addressed in the project.