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About

Francisco J. Chiyah Garcia is a leading researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction, explainable AI, and autonomous systems for remote environments. His work focuses on making complex, high-stakes robots—deployed in offshore energy, search and rescue, and military settings—transparent and trustworthy through natural language interfaces. Garcia’s major contribution is the development of a natural language chat interface that allows users to query autonomous vehicles about their behaviour, enabling scrutable, self-explainable robots. His most-cited paper, "Explain Yourself: A Natural Language Interface for Scrutable Autonomous Robots" (2018, 18 citations), demonstrates how this approach increases transparency and maintains operator trust. He also explores public perceptions of robotics and AI, notably in "Robots in the Danger Zone" (2020, 15 citations), which highlights the importance of effective public engagement to counter negative or inaccurate views. Garcia’s work bridges technical innovation and societal impact, ensuring that as robots become more autonomous, they remain understandable and accountable. His research is essential for the safe deployment of autonomous systems in critical, remote applications.