Papers
35
Total Citations
1,249
H-Index
14
About
Alexandra Kirsch is a leading researcher in human-aware robot navigation, a field dedicated to making robots that move safely and intuitively around people. Her highly-cited survey, "Human-aware robot navigation: A survey" (715 citations), established the foundational framework for this domain. Kirsch’s central contribution is the concept of *legibility*—designing robot motion so that humans can easily understand the robot’s intentions. In her seminal work on legible navigation (90 citations), she demonstrated that robots can plan paths that are not only collision-free but also socially communicative, for example by clearly signaling an intended crossing direction. She further showed that such legible behavior directly increases humans’ perceived safety (76 citations). Kirsch also pioneered the idea of exploiting human cooperation (38 citations), arguing that robots should plan paths that invite humans to actively collaborate rather than treating them as mere obstacles. Her work on directional cost models (34 citations) addressed the challenge of avoiding confused-looking robot behavior in dynamic settings. Through her systematic literature review (21 citations) and contributions to the MORSE simulator (28 citations), Kirsch has provided both the theoretical and practical tools for a generation of social robotics researchers.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Human-aware robot navigation: A survey715 citations · 2013
- 2Legible robot navigation in the proximity of moving humans90 citations · 2012
- 3
- 4Exploiting human cooperation in human-centered robot navigation38 citations · 2010
- 5Evaluating directional cost models in navigation34 citations · 2014
- 6Human-robot interaction in the MORSE simulator28 citations · 2012
- 7
- 8Transformational Planning for Everyday Activity23 citations · 2007
- 9Legibility of Robot Behavior : A Literature Review21 citations · 2016
- 10