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This study will scrutinize the emerging field of social robots, conducting in-depth interviews and participant-observation to understand how humans design and invent advanced technologies, humanoid robots in particular based on their social and emotional needs. The aim of social robotic is to understand the interactions of humans and robots not only as machines but also as one part of social lives of individuals. The practice of social robot demands interdisciplinary collaborations among a wide range of social scientists and engineers, since it involves research problems beyond the narrow specializations of any one scientific discipline. Advanced technologies, specifically humanoid robots and their function in treating children with autism supported by different institutional mechanisms have catalyzed a rapid growth in this field in recent years. The recent developments in psychological function of robots in treating children with autism, is the main motivation of this thesis, to understand how a humanoid and anthropomorphic robot can also become an assistant in psychiatric clinics to help individual’s with psychological disorder, schizophrenia in particular. This study aims to explore the new functions and potentials of anthropomorphic robots .The case studies will be done in USA and Japan, as two countries with the latest developments in robotic technologies. The study will contribute to studying the new potentials and functions of anthropomorphic robots in psychiatry, highlighting how in the network of human robot interactions, actants, anthropomorphic robots and schizophrenic patients interact, how human actants constantly make and remake robots actants. The focus is to explore that, as there is no difference between technology and human based on actor network theory, how designing and programming an anthropomorphic robot can become a psychiatrist in treating schizophrenic people. At a general level, this study will create new knowledge about the ways interdisciplinary collaborations emerge and evolve, highlighting how technological development entwines with psychology and societal issues. The study will result in journal articles, a book, and presentations at socio robotic, human robot interaction and STS conferences. The study will also result in presentations at socio robotic research conferences and workshops that will help participants understand the social and infrastructural aspects of effective interdisciplinarity. Broad impact will also result from the development of case studies for use in undergraduate courses focused on the social, psychological and technological dimensions of science and technology
 * Intellectual Merit **
 * Broader Impacts **