Many current robot designs prioritize efficiency and one-size-fits-all solutions, oftentimes overlooking personalization, adaptability, and sustainability. To explore alternatives, we conducted two co-design workshops with 23 participants, who engaged with a modular robot co-design framework. Using components we provided as building blocks, participants combined, removed, and invented modules to envision how modular robots could accompany them from childhood through adulthood and into older adulthood. The participants' designs illustrate how modularity (a) enables personalization through open-ended configuration, (b) adaptability across shifting life-stage needs, and (c) sustainability through repair, reuse, and continuity. We therefore derive design principles that establish modularity as a foundation for lifespan-oriented human-robot interaction. This work reframes modular robotics as a flexible and expressive co-design approach, supporting robots that evolve with people, rather than static products optimized for single moments or contexts of use.

翻译：当前许多机器人设计优先考虑效率和通用型解决方案，往往忽视了个性化、适应性和可持续性。为探索替代方案，我们与23名参与者开展了两次协同设计工作坊，参与者通过模块化机器人协同设计框架进行创作。利用我们提供的组件作为构建单元，参与者通过组合、移除和创新模块，设想了模块化机器人如何陪伴他们从童年、成年直至老年阶段。参与者的设计展示了模块化如何能够：（a）通过开放式配置实现个性化；（b）适应不同人生阶段的需求变化；（c）通过维修、重用和延续性实现可持续性。由此我们提炼出将模块化作为面向全生命周期人机交互基础的设计原则。本研究将模块化机器人重新定义为一种灵活且富有表现力的协同设计方法，支持机器人与人类共同进化，而非局限于单一使用场景的静态产品。