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About

Annika Peters is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI), with a focus on the social and spatial dynamics that enable intuitive, trusting relationships between humans and robots. Her work systematically unpacks the subtle signals and cues—from spatial navigation patterns to communicative gestures—that underpin successful collaboration. Peters’ pioneering contributions include developing a typology of meaningful signals in social robotics (56 citations) and applying a qualitative trajectory calculus to analyze joint spatial behavior, such as guiding and approaching (42 citations). She has also advanced the study of trust through an immersive investment game (22 citations), creating novel experimental paradigms to measure how environmental and social factors influence human-robot trust. Her research on social navigation, particularly how robots should move in path-crossing scenarios (28 citations), has practical implications for safe, appealing robot design in shared spaces. By bridging theoretical frameworks with empirical methods, Peters has shaped our understanding of how robots can become more socially competent partners, making her work essential reading for anyone interested in the future of collaborative robotics.