Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Ezgi Merdin-Uygur is an emerging scholar whose research sits at the dynamic intersection of human-robot interaction, consumer behavior, and service technology. Her work critically examines how people perceive, evaluate, and respond to service robots across diverse contexts — from hospitality settings to operating rooms. Her most cited contribution, "Consumers and service robots: Power relationships amid COVID-19 pandemic" (2022, 44 citations), established her as a thoughtful voice in understanding how global crises reshape consumer-robot dynamics and power asymmetries. Building on this foundation, Merdin-Uygur has pioneered inquiry into robotic service failures, investigating how robot appearance, human interference, and individual anthropomorphism tendencies shape consumer blame attributions and self-efficacy perceptions. Her experimental research across cafés, clinics, and surgical suites reveals that context matters profoundly in how we assign responsibility when robots fail. Most recently, she has extended her gaze into healthcare, probing questions of knowledge, agency, and ownership in human-robot surgical collaboration. With a growing citation record and an increasingly interdisciplinary scope, Merdin-Uygur's scholarship offers valuable frameworks for businesses and policymakers navigating the responsible integration of robotics into human-facing services.