Work / Robotics / Siegen × Waseda research

Religious Robot

A joint research project between Universität Siegen and Waseda University, Tokyo, exploring robots for religious practice. The Islamic robot, third in the collection, is designed for immigrants and refugees: helping them integrate into new societies while preserving religious and cultural identity.

Role: 3D model design and interaction design of the robot
Domain: Social robotics · Research
Methods: Qualitative data collection with immigrants and refugees
Partners: Universität Siegen × Waseda University, Tokyo
Context: Academic research collaboration
Outcome: Part of the Siegen × Waseda research collection

3D-printed prototypes of the religious robot from several angles, including the rotating base mechanism — Prototype studies: the form, the hidden sensors, and the rotating base.

Context

Identity is the hardest thing to pack

For people who have recently moved to non-Muslim countries, many as refugees, daily religious practice loses its infrastructure: the call to prayer, the qibla direction, the communal rhythm. The research asked whether a domestic robot could help preserve religious and cultural identity while its owners build a life in a new society.

Qualitative data was collected to understand the religion deeply and to surface the real needs of immigrants and refugees, the design followed the data, not assumptions about it.

Design

Reverence built into the mechanism

I designed the 3D model and the interaction of the robot around restraint, no cartoon face, no chatter, just quiet competence in the rituals that matter:

An integrated screen carries content without turning the object into a gadget.
Touch sensors hidden beneath the model of the holy book: interaction begins with the same gesture as practice.
A rotating mechanism orients the robot toward Mecca, so users always know the direction of prayer.

Qualitative research 3D modeling Interaction design Cross-cultural research

3D model of the robot shaped as a mosque: a dome, a minaret topped with a crescent, arches, and an interior stairway, on a cylindrical rotating base — The 3D model: a mosque in miniature, dome and minaret over the rotating base.

Fusion 360 view of the rotating base mechanism: twin meshing gears inside a ring-geared circular housing — The rotating mechanism in Fusion 360: geared base that turns the robot toward Mecca.

The robot doesn’t perform the ritual, it points the way and steps back. That humility is the interaction design.

design stance

Outcome

Research across two continents

As the third robot in the Siegen-Waseda collection, the project contributes a designed, buildable artifact to an open research question: how technology can serve cultural continuity rather than erode it. It is also the project where my fabrication practice and my academic practice meet most directly.

The robot in motion: the base rotating to find the direction of prayer.