robotics

Buciuniene, Ilona, Bernadeta Goštautaitė, António B. Moniz, and Irina Liubertė. "Hiring robots: How HRM shapes the development of human capital." In 36th Workshop on Strategic Human Resource Management. online: European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management, 2021.programme_may_27-28_2021_eism.pdf
Krings, Bettina-Johanna, António B. Moniz, and Philipp Frey. "Technology as enabler of the automation of work? Current societal challenges for a future perspective of work." Revista Brasileira de Sociologia 9 (2021): 206-229. Abstract806-1705-1-pb_revbrassociologia.pdfWebsite

Due to the innovative possibilities of digital technologies, the issue of increasing automation is once again on the agenda – and not only in the industry, but also in other branches and sectors of contemporary societies. Although public and scientific discussions about automation seem to raise relevant questions of the “old” debate, such as the replacement of human labor by introducing new technologies, the authors focus here on the new contextual quality of these questions. The debate should rethink the relationship between technology and work with regard to quantitative and qualitative changes in work. In this article, our example will be the introduction of automation in industry, which has been reflected in the widely recognized study by Frey and Osborne in 2013. They estimated the expected impacts of future computerization on US labor market outcomes as very high, specifically regarding the number of jobs at risk. Surprisingly, this study was the starting point of an intensive international debate on the impact of technologies on the future of work and the role of technological change in working environments. Thus, according to the authors, “old” questions remain important, but they should be reinterpreted for “new” societal demands and expectations of future models of work.

Moniz, António B. Robótica e Trabalho: o futuro hoje (Robotics and Work: The future today). Lisbon: Glaciar Ed., 2018. AbstractWebsite

Approaching the topic of robotics-work relation in a general and international context enables the possibility to know more about the impacts in different sectors. In this book the main discussion themes are followed in order to understand which the main dimensions are included in such debate. In that way, it becomes possible to understand the possible answers and available alternatives.
The book follows the themes of relation between employment and technology, the automation as rationalization process and robotics as a technology reference. The other topics are the emergence of ethical, legal and social aspects of this technology, the development that can be perceived in the case of Portugal, and the conclusions about the limits and perspectives of new robotic developments.
This edition has empirical information on the Portuguese case and also includes data from the main resources of the global debate on this issue: the new developments of automation and its relation with the work content and employment.
The author underlined the importance of the contribute that he got from the discussions at the ITAS Working Group on Robotics Technology Assessment, and at the ITAS Research Group on Technology and Work, in Germany, and at the Observatory of Technology Assessment at CICS.NOVA in Portugal. The book is include in a series supported by the Portuguese-American Foundation for Development (FLAD) and was published by Glaciar.

Moniz, António Brandão, and Bettina Krings. "Special issue on robots and the work environment." Societies 4 (2016): 31.Website
Moniz, António. "Intuitive Interaction Between Humans and Robots in Work Functions at Industrial Environments: The Role of Social Robotics." In Social Robots from a Human Perspective, edited by Jane Vincent, Sakari Taipale, Bartolomeo Sapio, Giuseppe Lugano and Leopoldina Fortunati, 67-76. Heidelberg: Springer, 2015.
Moniz, António. "Human-Robot Interaction in Industrial Working Environments: Results from a Start-up Project." EconStor Open Access Articles (2013). AbstractWebsite

The social dimension of worker-robot interaction in industry is becoming a decisive aspect of robotics development. Many problems and difficulties of robotics research are not only related to technical issues but framed by social aspects. Human-robot interaction (HRI) as a specific research field of robotics tackles this issue. The debate on social involvement in HRI design of a few decades ago must be re-opened. A start-up project was initiated in 2012 at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) to define a new research field and establish a conceptual framework on HRI. It was related to recent developments in the manufacturing industry and professional service robotics. The aim was to cooperate with other research teams to establish an expert network in this field. Special focus was placed on the design of work organisation models and issues of robotics technology design for worker (or operator) and robot interaction. In the current paper we present the most important conclusions from these research activities. –

Moniz, António Brandão. Organizational concepts and interaction between humans and robots in industrial environments In IROS 2013 "DRHE 2013 Dependable Robots in Human Environments". Tokyo: AIST - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 2013. Abstract

This paper is discussing the intuitive interaction with robotic systems and the conceptualisation connected with known organisational problems. In particular, the focus will be on the manufacturing industry with respect to its social dimension. One of the aims is to identify relevant research questions about the possibility of development of safer robot systems in closer human-machine intuitive interaction systems at the manufacturing shop-floor level. We try to contribute to minimize the cognitive and perceptual workload for robot operators in complex working systems. In particular that will be highly relevant when more different robots with different roles and produced by different companies or designers are to be used in the manufacturing industry to a larger extent. The social sciences approach to such technology assessment is of high relevance to understand the dimensions of the intuitive interaction concept.