Will android astronomers dream of electric stars? An experiment in collaborative astronomical visual data exploration with a humanoid robot

As a component of data exploration and discovery, artificial intelligence is changing the way we think about scientific collaboration; however, work to date has almost exclusively considered non-embodied algorithms running on a computer. In this work, we report on an experimental study involving a visual data exploration activity, mediated via a large-format display, where a humanoid robot shares the physical environment with humans.

Throughout, we used role-playing and reflective practices to characterise and compare human--human collaborative visual discovery processes with those arising between humans and robots. Across three sessions, we moved from familiarisation with a Unitree G1 humanoid robot to working alongside a new sensemaking collaborator, Roci. While Roci's ontological agency was low, requiring teleoperation throughout for locomotion and gesturing, his phenomenological agency was high: we accepted Roci as a collaborator whose actions were perceived as intentional.