Social Robot Interaction and HRI

Social robot interaction research examines how people form relationships with machines designed to behave in socially meaningful ways — responding to emotion, initiating conversation, and adapting to the people around them. As robots move into homes, hospitals, and elder care settings, understanding when and why humans extend trust, affection, or discomfort to these systems has real consequences for design and deployment. Researchers grapple with questions like why a robot that looks almost-but-not-quite human can feel deeply unsettling — the phenomenon known as the uncanny valley — and how much anthropomorphism is genuinely helpful versus subtly misleading to users. An active frontier involves whether long-term robot companionship can meaningfully support cognitive and emotional wellbeing in older adults, and how to measure that rigorously without overstating what current systems can actually provide.

Works

38,190

Total citations

376,870

Keywords

Socially Assistive RoboticsHuman-Robot InteractionAnthropomorphismElderly CareEmotion PerceptionCognitive Developmental Robotics