Sam Blisard

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Sam Blisard’s research sits at the intersection of human-robot interaction, spatial language, and intuitive robot control. His work focuses on enabling non-expert users to communicate naturally with robots, particularly through spatial references and hand-drawn maps. His most influential paper, “Hand-Drawn Maps for Robot Navigation” (2002, 22 citations), pioneered a user interface that allows domain experts—without robotics training—to guide and program robots using simple sketches. This work laid the foundation for more accessible human-robot collaboration. Blisard further advanced the field with “Spatial Language for Human-Robot Dialogs” (2003, 18 citations), exploring how robots can interpret natural language directives like “go to the right of the pillar.” In “Go to the Right of the Pillar: Modeling Unoccupied Regions for Robot Directives” (2002, 2 citations), he modeled unoccupied spaces to improve robot understanding of spatial instructions. Though his citation counts are modest, Blisard’s contributions are notable for their focus on usability and natural communication—key challenges in bringing robots into everyday human environments. His work remains relevant for researchers in human-robot interaction and assistive robotics.