Bethany N. Manalo

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About

Bethany N. Manalo is a leading voice in socially-aware robotics, where her work bridges the technical demands of autonomous navigation with the nuanced realities of human social spaces. Her research is centered on developing mobile robots that can move not just efficiently, but appropriately, adapting their behavior to the specific social contexts of public environments. Her most influential paper, "Advancing Socially-Aware Navigation for Public Spaces" (2022, 10 citations), lays the groundwork for robots that are accepted as considerate agents in shared settings, moving beyond purely geometric path planning. Manalo’s impact is further amplified by her groundbreaking interdisciplinary work, "Robotics in place and the places of robotics" (2024, 6 citations), which brings human geography into conversation with human-robot interaction. This paper critically examines how robots become active participants in producing social space, introducing geographic concepts like scale and place to the design of interactive robots. By challenging engineers to think like geographers, Manalo is not just improving robot algorithms; she is reshaping the very philosophy of how robots should inhabit our world, ensuring they are not just functional, but socially integrated.