L. Olsson

About

L. Olsson is a pioneering researcher in developmental robotics and human-robot interaction (HRI), whose work focuses on how robots can autonomously learn about their own bodies and environments from raw, uninterpreted sensory data. One of their most influential contributions, the 2006 study on child-robot interaction (53 citations), explores how sustained engagement and kinesics—the study of body movement—can be designed to create more natural, unstructured interactions between children and robotic pets, offering foundational lessons for HRI design. Olsson’s earlier work, such as the 2004 paper on sensory channel grouping (37 citations), introduced methods for robots to infer the structure of their own sensory apparatus without prior knowledge, relying on generic properties like movement effects. This line of research culminated in innovative techniques for sensor adaptation through entropy maximization (15 citations) and the development of a complete system for visually guided movement from unknown sensors and actuators (9 citations). By enabling robots to build internal models from scratch, Olsson has made significant strides toward truly autonomous, self-developing robotic systems, inspiring further work in embodied cognition and developmental AI.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Sustaining interaction dynamics and engagement in dyadic child-robot interaction kinesics: lessons learnt from an exploratory study

   53 citations · 2006
2. 2
   Sensory channel grouping and structure from uninterpreted sensor data

   37 citations · 2004
3. 3
   Sensor Adaptation and Development in Robots by Entropy Maximization of Sensory Data

   15 citations · 2005
4. 4
   From Unknown Sensors and Actuators to Visually Guided Movement

   9 citations · 2005

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links