ABSTRACT
This chapter describes about a specific population, Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel, and their everyday interactions with robots. The HHIM framework is one way of understanding and speaking about common expectations of human-human interactions within EOD work, as described by one group of individuals. Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) group size varies between functions and service branch, and evolves according to organizational policy and changing strategies. Each group has similar training, but individuals offer a unique perspective. The attribution of zoomorphic or anthropomorphic traits to the robot were explained by participants as rooted in small-group/team dynamics, age of the operator, length of time working with a particular robot, troop loneliness, boredom, humor, and also self-extension of the operator's physical and/or emotional self into the robot. The core proposition of social constructivist theory suggests that social and symbolic processes produce patterns of shared concepts, understanding, and behaviors that spring from things beyond the basic acts of information processing in organizations.
