Human-Robot Interaction
This pillar brings the human dimension into robotics by studying how robots can collaborate, assist, communicate, and adapt to human needs in socially relevant contexts. My work in human-robot interaction is grounded in the view that robots should be developed as complete systems, where technical performance is evaluated alongside usability, safety, transparency, and social fit. I am especially interested in applications in which robots support people in industrial, assistive, and interactive settings, and in which academic-industrial partnerships can turn research into meaningful solutions.
A major challenge is designing robots that are not only capable but also understandable, adaptable, and comfortable for people to work with over time. Current directions include personalization, multimodal interaction, telepresence, collaboration, and behavior that remains stable yet responsive to human feedback and context. I am particularly interested in how human-robot interaction can inform system design from the outset, so that autonomy, safety, and transparency are built into the robot rather than added later as separate layers.
Related Projects
Featured Publications:
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PEBRE: An Open-Hardware Compute and Perception Add-On for the Pepper Robot
arXiv. 2026. Kuhlmann, Malte; Bugueno-Cordova, Ignacio; Alms, Emil; Ruiz-del-Solar, Javier; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás
DOI, PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Kuhlmann2026PEBRE Supplementary material ©2026 The Authors. -
Quantifying the Effect of Feedback Frequency in Interactive Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Tasks
Neural Computing and Applications. Special Issue on Human-aligned Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Agents and Robots. vol. 35, no. 23, pp. 16931–16943. Aug 2023. Harnack, Daniel; Pivin-Bachler, Julie; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás
DOI, PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Harnack2023Quantifying ©2023 Springer The Authors. -
Survey on Reinforcement Learning for Language Processing
Artificial Intelligence Review. vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 1543–1575. Feb 2023. Uc-Cetina, Víctor; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás; Martin-Gonzalez, Anabel; Weber, Cornelius; Wermter, Stefan
DOI, PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Uc-Cetina2023Survey ©2023 Springer US The Authors. -
Mediation Support with Mediation Expert Systems and Robotic Tele-Presence
International Conference on Group Decision and Negotiation (GDN). Toronto, ON, Canada. Jun 2020. Adrian, Lin; Druckman, Daniel; Filzmoser, Michael; Damholdt, Malene Flensborg; Koeszegi, Sabine T.; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolas; Seibt, Johanna; Smedegaard, Catharina V.; Vestergaard, Christina; Quick, Oliver
PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Adrian2020Mediation ©2020 Springer US The Authors. -
Fair Proxy Mediation – First Experimental Results with Tele‐Operated Robots
International Conference on Group Decision and Negotiation (GDN). vol. 351 of LNBIP, Loughborough, UK. Jun 2019. Adrian, Lin; Druckman, Daniel; Filzmoser, Michael; Damholdt, Malene Flensborg; Koeszegi, Sabine T.; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolas; Seibt, Johanna; Smedegaard, Catharina V.; Vestergaard, Christina; Quick, Oliver
PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Adrian2019Fair ©2019 Springer US The Authors. -
Comparison of Behaviour-Based Architectures for Human-Robot Collaboration in a Package Delivery Task
International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI). pp. 121-129. Bielefeld, Germany. Oct 2017. Remmels, Melanie; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás; Wermter, Stefan
DOI, PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Remmels2017Comparison slides ©2017 ACM The Authors. -
The Impact of Personalization on Human-Robot Interaction in Learning Scenarios
International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI). pp. 171-180. Bielefeld, Germany. Oct 2017. Churamani, Nikhil; Anton, Paul; Brügger, Marc; Fließwasser, Erik; Hummel, Thomas; Mayer, Julius; Mustafa, Waleed; Ng, Hwei Geok; Nguyen, Quan; Soll, Marcus; Springenberg, Sebastian; Griffiths, Sascha; Heinrich, Stefan; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás; Strahl, Erik; Twiefel, Johannes; Weber, Cornelius; Wermter, Stefan
DOI, PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Churamani2017Impact ©2017 ACM The Authors. -
Hey Robot, Why Don’t You Talk to Me?
IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). pp. 728-731. Lisbon, Portugal. Aug 2017. Ng, Hwei Geok; Anton, Paul; Brügger, Marc; Churamani, Nikhil; Fließwasser, Erik; Hummel, Thomas; Mayer, Julius; Mustafa, Waleed; Nguyen, Thi Linh Chi; Nguyen, Quan; Soll, Marcus; Springenberg, Sebastian; Griffiths, Sascha; Heinrich, Stefan; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás; Strahl, Erik; Twiefel, Johannes; Weber, Cornelius; Wermter, Stefan
DOI, PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Ng2017Hey slides -
NICO – Neuro-Inspired COmpanion: A Developmental Humanoid Robot Platform for Multimodal Interaction
IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). pp. 113-120. Lisbon, Portugal. Aug 2017. Kerzel, Matthias; Strahl, Erik; Magg, Sven; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás; Heinrich, Stefan; Wermter, Stefan
DOI, PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Kerzel2017NICO -
A Robotic Home Assistant with Memory Aid Functionality
KI 2016: Advances in Artificial Intelligence. vol. 9904 of LNCS, pp. 102-115. Klagenfurt, Austria. Sep 2016. Wieser, Iris; Toprak, Sibel; Grenzing, Andreas; Hinz, Tobias; Auddy, Sayantan; Karaoğuz, Ethem Can; Chandran, Abhilash; Remmels, Melanie; Shinawi, Ahmed El; Josifovski, Josip; Vankadara, Leena Chennuru; Wahab, Faiz Ul; Bahnemiri, Alireza M.; Sahu, Debasish; Heinrich, Stefan; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás; Strahl, Erik; Twiefel, Johannes; Wermter, Stefan
DOI, PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Wieser2016Robotic Supplementary material ©2016 Copyright Springer International Publishing AG -
Interaction in Reinforcement Learning Reduces the Need for Finely Tuned Hyperparameters in Complex Tasks
Kognitive Systeme. vol. 3, no. 2, Dec 2015. Stahlhut, Chris; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás; Weber, Cornelius; Wermter, Stefan
DOI, PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Stahlhut2015Interaction ©2015 Copyright Stahlhut et al. -
Interaction is More Beneficial in Complex Reinforcement Learning Problems than in Simple Ones
Interdisziplinärer Workshop Kognitive Systeme: Mensch, Teams, Systeme und Automaten. pp. 142-150. Bielefeld, Germany. Mar 2015. Stahlhut, Chris; Navarro-Guerrero, Nicolás; Weber, Cornelius; Wermter, Stefan
PDF, URL, bib file. bibkey: Stahlhut2015Interaction slides ©2015 Copyright tahlhut et al.