Publications

+++ OPEN ACCESS +++

Laura Voss:
More Than Machines? The Attribution of (In)Animacy to Robot Technology

“This book is wonderful. … a faboulus contribution to the field!” – Prof. Liz W. Faber

“Highly recommended.” – Prof. David. J. Gunkel

We know that robots are just machines. Why then do we often talk about them as if they were alive? Laura Voss explores this fascinating phenomenon, providing a rich insight into practices of animacy (and inanimacy) attribution to robot technology: from science-fiction to robotics R&D, from science communication to media discourse, and from the theoretical perspectives of STS to the cognitive sciences. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, and backed by a wealth of empirical material, Voss shows how scientists, engineers, journalists – and everyone else – can face the challenge of robot technology appearing »a little bit alive« with a reflexive and yet pragmatic stance.

Review by Dr. Liz W. Faber in Ancillary Review of Books.

Transcript Publishing, 2021

Publications

(*peer-reviewed)

  • Voss, L. (2021). More Than Machines? The Attribution of (In)Animacy to Robot Technology. Transcript Publishing.
  • Voss, L. (2020). Robots Wanted: Dead and/or Alive. The Attribution of In/Animacy to Robot Technology. Doctoral dissertation. Technische Universität München.
  • Voss, L. (2020). ‘Roboter gesucht – tot und/oder lebendig’. (German)
    An essay reflecting on the interdisciplinary aspects of my doctoral research. Written in the context of my Andrea von Braun Foundation PhD scholarship. PDF
  • * Meinecke, L. & Voss, L. (2018). ‘I Robot, You Unemployed’: Science-Fiction and Robotics in the Media. In J. Engelschalt et al. (Eds.), Schafft Wissen – Gemeinsames und geteiltes Wissen in Wissenschaft und Technik. Proceedings der 2. Tagung des Nachwuchsnetzwerks “INSIST”, München 2016, SSOAR. PDF
  • Voss, L. (2018). Technologie und Collagekunst. In J. Engelschalt et al. (Eds.), Schafft Wissen – Gemeinsames und geteiltes Wissen in Wissenschaft und Technik. Proceedings der 2. Tagung des Nachwuchsnetzwerks “INSIST”, München 2016, SSOAR. PDF
  • * Griffiths, S., Voss, L. & Röhrbein, F. (2015). Proximity in Industry-Academia Collaborations: The Case of the ECHORD Project. International Journal of Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 71-76. doi: 10.12720/ijmse.3.1.71-76
  • * Griffiths, S., Voss, L. & Röhrbein, F. (2014). Industry-Academia Collaborations in Robotics: Comparing Asia, Europe and North-America. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2014. doi: 10.1109/ICRA.2014.6906938
  • Röhrbein, F., Griffiths, S. & Voss, L. (2013). On industry-academia collaborations in robotics. Technical Report TUM-I1338. PDF
  • Knoll, A., Röhrbein, F. & Voss, L. (Eds.) (2013). European Robotics Research Institutions. PDF
  • * Stork, S., Voss, L., Schankin, A. & Schubö, A. (2010). Context Information in Guiding Visual Search: The Role of Color and Orientation. In G. Leitner, M. Hitz, & A. Holzinger (Eds.), HCI in Work and Learning, Life and Leisure (pp. 291–304). Springer: Berlin Heidelberg. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16607-5_19
  • Voss, L. (2010). The influence of movement sequence and workpiece order status on manual assembly performance. Diploma thesis. Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Department of Psychology.