Research

The research group “Socially Assistive Robotics with Artificial Intelligence” (Prof. Dr. Barbara Bruno) designs, develops and evaluates social robots aiming at assisting children, people suffering from impairments or disorders and older adults in fundamental tasks such as cognitive development/training, skills acquisition, self-regulation and self-awareness. Central to the group's approach is the combination of robot-oriented research with human-oriented research. From a robot perspective, the research focus is on developing the user modelling, planning and interaction capabilities required by the robot to carry on the assistive task autonomously and successfully. From a human perspective, the research focus is on identifying and modelling the factors that affect a person's perception of, and interaction with, a robot, and thus impact the robot's effectiveness. Finally, key to the evaluation of the robot and its effectiveness is the design of often long-term user studies, which implies the identification and design of appropriate research methodologies and evaluation tools.