  Human-robot interaction requires to be studied in the wild. In the summers of
2022 and 2023, we deployed two trash barrel service robots through the
wizard-of-oz protocol in public spaces to study human-robot interactions in
urban settings. We deployed the robots at two different public plazas in
downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn for a collective of 20 hours of field time. To
date, relatively few long-term human-robot interaction studies have been
conducted in shared public spaces. To support researchers aiming to fill this
gap, we would like to share some of our insights and learned lessons that would
benefit both researchers and practitioners on how to deploy robots in public
spaces. We share best practices and lessons learned with the HRI research
community to encourage more in-the-wild research of robots in public spaces and
call for the community to share their lessons learned to a GitHub repository.
