Social Robot Interaction and HRI

Human-robot interaction research examines how people perceive, interpret, and form relationships with robots that are designed to behave in socially recognizable ways — reading emotional cues, responding to conversation, and in some cases providing companionship or care. As robots move into homes, hospitals, and schools, understanding why people sometimes treat them as social agents (and when that tendency helps or backfires) has become a practical as well as a theoretical concern. The uncanny valley effect — the discomfort people feel when a robot looks almost but not quite human — remains only partially explained, and researchers continue to debate how much anthropomorphism aids versus distorts effective human-robot collaboration. Particularly pressing is how these dynamics shift across age groups, with growing work on whether robots can offer genuine cognitive or emotional support to children and older adults without substituting for human connection in ways that carry hidden costs.

Works

37,206

Total citations

372,021

Keywords

Socially Assistive RoboticsHuman-Robot InteractionAnthropomorphismElderly CareEmotion PerceptionCognitive Developmental Robotics