Human-Robot-Environment Design is a proposed discipline for one concrete problem: service robots are operating in hotels, hospitals, restaurants and warehouses, in spaces designed exclusively for humans. That distance is a problem of the built environment — and it is decided at the interior-design stage.
A robot is not a human with another shape. It has a different turning radius, a different working height, and a completely different relationship with light, noise, floor texture and corridor width. When it operates in a corridor drawn only for people, it does not fail outright — it runs at a fraction of what it could do. As robots improve, the space does not matter less. It becomes the limiting factor.
The decisions that make a space robot-ready — floor material, corridor width, where the hub sits, how the light is distributed, what kind of doors — are taken during interior design, where they cost far less than any later change. After the walls are up and the floor is laid, changing them costs tens of thousands of euros. That is where HRED has the highest possible return: not in more expensive technology, but in a better-informed drawing.
HRED adequacy is a function of what the robots have to do, where, in which physical envelope, and at what pace. The framework organises those questions so that no one of them is answered in isolation.
T1 transport · T2 surface maintenance · T3 manipulation · T4 inspection · T5 human assistance · T6 materials · T7 environmental · T8 security · T9 exceptions. Classifying by task, not by robot, is what keeps the framework valid when next year's catalogue arrives.
Restaurants · Hotels · Healthcare and senior care · Offices · Retail and indoor logistics · Residential · Airports and transport · Spa and wellness · Education · Arenas and stadiums · Mixed-use · Emerging and prospective. Each with its own specification sheet.
HRED is a design and planning methodology under development, written by a student of interior design. It does not replace manufacturer specifications, engineering calculations, building regulations, fire-safety requirements or other specialist technical approvals.
Where there is no established science, HRED declares the gap instead of filling it with fabricated content. The discipline of separating what is known from what is proposed is the spine of the work.
Forty-two chapters and seven working appendices: a proposed discipline, a built vocabulary, twelve specified typologies, a design method and a research programme with its own conditions of refutation declared. A glossary, an index of standards, a book of construction details, a workbook, specification sheets for every typology, three projects worked end to end — including what went wrong — and a standard technical data sheet to demand from manufacturers.
Much of it is proposal rather than result, and the book says, line by line, which is which. Written in Portuguese; the first edition is complete and being prepared for publication in 2026. An English edition is planned.
Robotics companies, operators and research groups: field studies, technical documentation, site visits and critique are what turn the hypotheses into results. See how to take part.
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