Papers
65
Total Citations
924
H-Index
16
About
Naomi T. Fitter is a robotics researcher whose work spans human-robot interaction, haptics, assistive robotics, and robot communication. Her early research broke new ground by enabling robots to learn the meaning of haptic adjectives through direct physical exploration, earning 107 citations and demonstrating how robots can acquire language through embodied experience. She has made significant contributions to teleoperation, particularly in understanding how grip-force and contact feedback improve remote manipulation tasks (77 citations), and to the design of expressive robot interfaces, including open-source facial displays for the Baxter robot. Fitter's work consistently bridges laboratory innovation and real-world impact: she has explored telepresence robots for university and K-12 education (52 and 36 citations), social-physical exercise robots for older adults (68 citations), and socially assistive robots supporting infant motor development. Her investigations into nonverbal robot sound — both through empirical studies and a widely cited systematic review (44 citations) — have shaped how researchers think about robot auditory expression. With a portfolio spanning vulnerable populations, classroom technology, and comedic human-robot interaction, Fitter exemplifies a researcher committed to making robots genuinely useful and socially meaningful across diverse human contexts.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Using robotic exploratory procedures to learn the meaning of haptic adjectives107 citations · 2013
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- 5Effects of Robot Sound on Auditory Localization in Human-Robot Collaboration48 citations · 2018
- 6Nonverbal Sound in Human-Robot Interaction: A Systematic Review44 citations · 2023
- 7Comedians in Cafes Getting Data40 citations · 2020
- 8Designing and Assessing Expressive Open-Source Faces for the Baxter Robot38 citations · 2016
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