Human-Robot Interaction — An Introduction

This is the virtual home of the Human-Robot Interaction – An Introduction textbook by Christoph Bartneck, Tony Belpaeme, Friederike Eyssel, Takayuki Kanda, Merel Keijsers, Selma Šabanović. It is being published by Cambridge University Press. You can order the printed book on Amazon.com. The Kindle Edition is available as well. The book is available for free as PDF files below.

Summary

The role of robots in society keeps expanding and diversifying, bringing with it a host of issues surrounding the relationship between robots and humans. This introduction to Human–Robot Interaction, written by leading researchers in this developing field, is the first to provide a broad overview of the multidisciplinary topics central to modern HRI research. Students and researchers from robotics, artificial intelligence, psychology, sociology, and design will find it a concise and accessible guide to the current state of the field.

Written for students from diverse backgrounds, it presents the all the relevant background concepts, describing how robots work, how to design them, and how to evaluate their performance. Self-contained chapters discuss a wide range of topics, including the different communication modalities such as speech, non-verbal communication and the processing of emotions, as well as ethical issues around the application of robots today and in the context of our future society.

  • Minimal prerequisites and modular presentation enables courses to be tailored to fit students with different backgrounds
  • Discussion questions and relevant literature at the end of the chapter contribute to deeper conversations in and outside the classroom
  • Over 90 color illustrations showcase the history and most recent developments in Human–Robot Interaction

Please cite this book as:

Bartneck, C., Belpaeme, T., Eyssel, F., Kanda, T., Keijsers, M., & Sabanovic, S. (2020). Human-Robot Interaction – An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Non-English Versions

The Carl Hanser Verlag will published the German version entitled “Mensch-Roboter-Interaktion – Eine Einführung“. A Chinese edition is in preparation by the China Machine Press-HuaZhang Company for 2021. A Korean edition is in preparation by Hands Holding a Book for a release in the upcoming year.

Educational Uptake

This book has been adopted by the following universities for teaching courses. Please contact us if you would like your course to be added to this list:

  • University of Waterloo, Canada, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Social Robotics – Foundations, Technology and Applications of Human-Centered Robotics
  • National Taipei University in Taiwan, Taiwan, Hooman Samani, M5226 Advanced Robotics
  • Ontario Tech University, Candad, Patrick C. K. Hung, BUSI4590U Topics in Technology Management & INFR 4599U Service Robots Innovation for Commerce
  • The Colorado School of Mines, USA, Tom Williams, CSCI 436 / 536: Human-Robot Interaction
  • Heriot-Watt University, UK, Lynne Baillie, F21HR Human Robot Interaction
  • Uppsala University, Sweden, Filip Malmberg, UU-61611 Social Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction
  • Skövde University, Sweden, MSc Human-Robot Interaction program
  • Indiana University Bloomington, USA, Selma Sabanovic, INFO-I 440 Human-Robot Interaction
  • Ghent University, Belgium, Tony Belpaeme, E019370A Robotics module
  • University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Christoph Bartneck, Professional Certificate in Human-Robot Interaction
  • Bielefeld University, Germany, Frederike Eyssel, 270037 Sozialpsychologische Aspekte der Mensch-Maschine Interaktion
  • Kyoto University, Japan, Takayuki Kanda, 3218000 Human-Robot Interaction (ヒューマンロボットインタラクション)
  • Oakland University, USA, Wing-Yue Geoffrey Louie, ECE4900/5900: Human-Robot Interaction
  • Carnegie Mellon University Africa, Rwanda, David Vernon, 18-799-L3 Human-Robot Interaction.
  • Hanyang University, South Korea, Casey Bennett, CSE4055 Intelligent Robot Control
  • John Cabot University Rome, Italy, Merel Keijsers, An introduction to social robotics
  • Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil, Walter Teixeira Lima Junior,  1681 – Artificial Cognitive Systems and Social Robotics

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Human-Robot Interaction — An Introduction

About the authors:

Christoph Bartneck, Tony Belpaeme, Friederike Eyssel, Takayuki Kanda, Merel Keijsers, Selma Šabanović
From left: Takayuki Kanda, Selma Šabanović, Merel Keijsers, Tony Belpaeme, Christoph Bartneck, Friederike Eyssel

Christoph Bartneck

Christoph Bartneck is an associate professor in the department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury. He has a background in Industrial Design and Human-Computer Interaction, and his projects and studies have been published in leading journals, newspapers, and conferences. His interests lie in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction, Science and Technology Studies, and Visual Design. More specifically, he focuses on the effect of anthropomorphism on human-robot interaction. As a secondary research interest he works on projects in the area of sport technology and the critical review on scientific processes and policies. In the field of Design Christoph investigates the history of product design, tessellations and photography.

Tony Belpaeme

Tony Belpaeme is professor at Ghent University (Belgium) and the University of Plymouth (UK). He works on Human-Robot Interaction and cognitive robotics and believes that intelligence can be understood by studying how we interact socially with each other and with robots. This results in a spectrum of results, from theoretical insights to practical applications. He has worked on social robots for therapy, robots to support children in hospitals and robots that can act as tutors for young children.

Friederike Eyssel

Friederike Eyssel is professor of Applied Social Psychology and Gender Research at Bielefeld University, Germany. She is interested in various research topics ranging from social robotics, social agents, and ambient intelligence to attitude change, prejudice reduction, and sexual objectification of women.

Takayuki Kanda

Takayuki Kanda Takayuki Kanda is a professor in informatics at Kyoto University, Japan. He is also the visiting group leader at Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) Interaction Science Laboratories, Kyoto, Japan. He received his bachelor’s degree in engineering, his master’s degree in engineering, and his PhD in computer science from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, in 1998, 2000, and 2003, respectively. He is one of the starting members of the Communication Robots project at the Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) Institute in Kyoto. He has developed a communication robot, Robovie, and applied it in daily situations, such as peer tutoring at an elementary school and as a museum exhibit guide. His research interests include HAI, interactive humanoid robots, and field trials.

Merel Keijsers

Merel Keijsers  is an assistant professor in psychology at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Her training is in social psychology and statistics, and she completed her PhD on the topic of robot bullying at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. For her PhD she studied what conscious and subconscious psychological processes drive people to abuse and bully robots; recently she has gained an interest in how robots influence the way humans view themselves. More generally, having a background in social psychology, she is mainly interested in the similarities and differences in how people deal with robots versus other humans.

Selma Šabanović

Selma Šabanović is an Associate Professor of Informatics and Cognitive Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, where she directs the R-House Human-Robot Interaction Lab. She studies the design, use, and consequences of socially interactive and assistive robots in and for various social contexts, including healthcare institutions, user homes, and schools. She also investigates how cultural assumptions are embedded in and affect perceptions of robots for everyday use. She received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2007, for the cross-cultural study of social robot design in Japan and the US.