Papers
34
Total Citations
891
H-Index
15
About
Nicole Mirnig is a human-robot interaction (HRI) researcher whose work sits at the intersection of social robotics, user experience design, and human factors. She is best known for her pioneering investigations into how humans perceive and respond to robot errors — a critically underexplored area that challenges the assumption that robots must perform flawlessly to be accepted. Her landmark 2017 study, "To Err Is Robot," which has amassed over 236 citations, demonstrated that robot mistakes profoundly shape user perception and behavior, opening new avenues for designing more socially resilient robots. Complementing this, her systematic analyses of social signals during error situations have equipped researchers with frameworks for building robots capable of recognizing human distress cues in real time. Beyond error research, Mirnig has made notable contributions to augmented reality-assisted robot programming, autonomous vehicle-pedestrian communication, and tele-operated medical robotics, including a user-centred echocardiography robot developed over three years of iterative design. She has also explored the surprisingly nuanced role of humor in robotics, finding that self-irony and Schadenfreude meaningfully influence robot likability. With a broad publication record exceeding 660 combined citations, Mirnig's work consistently bridges technical innovation with human-centred design principles, making her a distinctive voice in contemporary HRI scholarship.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1To Err Is Robot: How Humans Assess and Act toward an Erroneous Social Robot236 citations · 2017
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- 5Three Strategies for Autonomous Car-to-Pedestrian Communication44 citations · 2017
- 6Human-Robot Interaction42 citations · 2020
- 7User-centred design and evaluation of a tele-operated echocardiography robot40 citations · 2020
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- 9Head and shoulders: automatic error detection in human-robot interaction32 citations · 2017
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