Papers
23
Total Citations
480
H-Index
11
About
Ute Leonards is a prominent researcher whose work sits at the intersection of human-robot interaction, social robotics, and cognitive science. Her research focuses on making robots safer, more trustworthy, and more effective collaborators and assistants for humans in real-world settings. Leonards has made significant contributions to understanding how robots can operate alongside humans more naturally and ethically. Her highly cited 2013 work on joint action understanding in robot-to-human handovers (91 citations) demonstrated how insights from human social cognition can directly improve robotic design. She has also advanced the field of socially assistive robotics, showing that human persuasion strategies—such as displays of goodwill and similarity—can meaningfully enhance a robot's effectiveness (71 citations). Her investigations into multimodal communication, including co-verbal iconic gestures and speech integration for robot avatars, highlight her commitment to richer, more natural human-robot communication. Beyond interaction design, Leonards has tackled critical ethical questions, examining risks posed by anthropomorphism and deception in assistive robots, and championing safety assurance frameworks for robotic co-workers. Her in-situ learning research further bridges the gap between laboratory robotics and real-world deployment. Collectively, her body of work has shaped how researchers and engineers think about building robots that are not only functional, but genuinely trustworthy human partners.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Joint action understanding improves robot-to-human object handover91 citations · 2013
- 2Effective Persuasion Strategies for Socially Assistive Robots71 citations · 2019
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- 5Iconic Gestures for Robot Avatars, Recognition and Integration with Speech39 citations · 2016
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- 9Speech and Gesture Emphasis Effects for Robotic and Human Communicators14 citations · 2015
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