Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Haruhiko Sato is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction, with a focused expertise on the psychological and physiological responses of humans to approaching mobile robots. His major contributions lie in quantifying the concept of "personal distance" — the invisible boundary people maintain between themselves and robots — a critical factor for designing safe and socially acceptable autonomous systems. In his seminal 1999 study, which has garnered 17 citations, Sato demonstrated that a robot's approach speed directly influences how close a person allows it to come, with faster speeds prompting larger personal distances. Notably, he confirmed this effect was consistent within individuals through repeated trials. Expanding this work, Sato conducted one of the first studies on older adults (ages 53–83), revealing that their personal distance from robots correlates with speed but shows no significant differences based on gender or posture. His research, foundational to the field, directly informs the deployment of mobile robots in real-world settings like hospitals, where his findings help ensure comfortable and non-intrusive human-robot collaboration.