Susan Prentice

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Susan Prentice is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI), with a focus on gender dynamics and social collaboration in industrial settings. Her work examines how people build rapport with collaborative robots, moving beyond traditional caged automation to team-based human-robot partnerships. Prentice’s most cited paper (2017, 60 citations) investigates rapport-building and hindering behaviors when working with collaborative robots, revealing critical insights into social communication techniques that enable effective teamwork. She has also broken new ground by exploring how women react to sexist robot behaviors (2023), highlighting the urgent need for gender-aware design in robotics. Her 2015 study on women and men collaborating with robots on assembly lines introduced an original scenario design to address gender issues in HRI, a field she argues has long neglected such perspectives. Prentice’s work is notable for its interdisciplinary approach, merging engineering, psychology, and feminist theory to shape more inclusive and effective human-robot teams. Her research has significant implications for the future of manufacturing, where robots increasingly work side-by-side with diverse human workforces.