Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Jake Brawer’s research lies at the intersection of human-robot collaboration, tool use, and language-driven interaction, with a focus on making robots more adaptive, intuitive, and socially aware. His most cited work, “Teaching Language to Deaf Infants with a Robot and a Virtual Human” (55 citations), addresses a critical developmental need by using robotic platforms to expose deaf infants to sign language—a breakthrough for the 90% born to hearing parents. Brawer further advanced human-robot teamwork through “Situated Human–Robot Collaboration” (18 citations), which enables robots to interpret implicit verbal and non-verbal cues for fluid interactions, and “A Causal Approach to Tool Affordance Learning” (18 citations), where robots learn cause-and-effect models to solve novel problems. His comprehensive survey “Robot tool use: A survey” (2023, 16 citations) and the TRI-STAR framework for rapid, generalizable tool-use skills (2021, 7 citations) have shaped the field’s understanding of robotic tool manipulation. Brawer also explores social norms in robotics (“That’s Mine! Learning Ownership Relations and Norms for Robots,” 9 citations) and task-oriented handovers (12 citations), demonstrating a commitment to robots that not only perform tasks but understand human context. With over 150 total citations, his work is foundational for developing robots that learn, collaborate, and communicate in real-world settings.