Understanding People for Better Human-Robot Interaction
Date and time: 13 March 2025, 13:00-14:00 CET
Speaker: Henny Admoni, Carnegie Mellon University
Title: Understanding People for Better Human-Robot Interaction
Where: Digital Futures hub, Osquars Backe 5, floor 2 at KTH main campus OR Zoom
Directions: https://www.digitalfutures.kth.se/contact/how-to-get-here/
OR
Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/69560887455
Host: Iolanda Leite
Abstract: Intelligent robotics promises to improve our lives by helping us with tasks as varied as delivering packages and eating a meal. Such applications inherently involve bidirectional interaction between humans and robots, in which each agent tries to interpret and respond to the actions of the other. Thus, the key to building successful human-robot interactions is to understand (and take advantage of) such bidirectional flows of information. In this talk, I will present several examples from my lab’s research on how robots can interpret people and how people interpret robots.
I’ll discuss how nonverbal human behaviors like eye gaze can predict what people know or intend to do, and how that knowledge can be applied to intelligent driving assistance and assisted eating. I’ll also talk about how robots can select behaviors that make them more understandable to people, for example during navigation or learning new skills. Throughout, I’ll showcase how our work is leading to more collaborative human-robot interactions.
Bio: Dr. Henny Admoni is an Associate Professor in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where she leads the Human And Robot Partners (HARP) Lab. Dr. Admoni studies how to develop intelligent robots that can assist and collaborate with humans on complex tasks like preparing a meal. She is most interested in how natural human communication, like where someone is looking, can reveal underlying human intentions and can be used to improve human-robot interactions. Dr. Admoni holds a PhD in Computer Science from Yale University, and a BA/MA joint degree in Computer Science from Wesleyan University.