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About

Heather Culbertson is a leading researcher in haptics and human-robot interaction, whose work fundamentally redefines how humans communicate with machines through the sense of touch. Her primary research areas include wearable haptic feedback, soft robotics for tactile displays, and the design of intuitive interfaces for teleoperation and shared autonomy. Culbertson’s major contributions center on creating lightweight, soft robotic devices that deliver clear, distributed touch cues. Her seminal paper on the WRAP system (66 citations) introduced a wearable, pneumatically actuated haptic guidance device for virtual reality and motion training, while its successor, HapWRAP (56 citations), advanced the field with a soft, growing actuator that provides comfortable, large-area skin feedback. She has also pioneered the use of haptic feedback to facilitate human-mobile robot communication and to convey robot goals during manipulation tasks, bridging the gap between human intent and autonomous action. Her work on active acoustic sensing for robot manipulation and the social acceptability of robotic touch further demonstrates her breadth. With over 170 total citations, Culbertson’s research is foundational for next-generation assistive robots, VR training systems, and emotionally intelligent machines. She is a recipient of an NSF CAREER Award and her work is regularly published in top venues like IEEE Transactions on Haptics and ICRA.