The first autonomously functioning vehicles and objects are starting to appear in our cities. In a few years, we will likely be surrounded by autonomous street sweepers, vendors, advertisers, delivery vehicles, or security robots. These types of city robots are being developed by various Big Tech companies and startups, driven by business motives. Critical questions about the impact such bots will have on people's daily lives in cities are rarely heard.
In their Lab 010 project, Cities of Things developed ways to engage residents from different neighbourhoods in Rotterdam in creating an alternative version of this future; one in which city robots are designed, developed, owned, maintained, and managed by the citizens themselves. It resulted in the 'Wijkbot Kit', a collection of open-source, affordable tools and methods for co-creating Wijkbots (Neighbourhood Robots) designed by local communities. The kit has been used several times at hackathons, conferences, and student projects. In today's workshop, the team briefly shares experiences but primarily offers the opportunity to work with the kit developed in the project, and to explore public values.
The creations built in this workshop will be on display on Day 2 of the conference!