Current research
In my doctoral research, I investigate the Human Intuitive Understanding of Nonverbal Communication by Social Robots. The project focuses on how humans intuitively perceive, respond to, and understand (expressive) nonverbal communication behavior of robots. This topic will be researched using a mixed-method approach, combining gaze-tracking, pupilometry and qualitative measures to create a holistic definition of the concept of intuition in Human-Robot Interaction. By understanding how human intuition works, I aim to create a framework for developing intuitive nonverbal communication for robots and thus making more fluent and efficient robots. This project is part of the Predictive and Intuitive Robot Companion (PIRC). Some highlights from my academic work are represented in the article here.
Academic interests
- User Studies
- Social Robotics
- Intuition
- Pupillometry
- User-Centered Design
Background
Marieke van Otterdijk (she/her) is a doctoral researcher with a background in psychology and Industrial Design. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Psychology from the Fontys Hogeschool in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and a Master of Science degree in Industrial Design from the University of Technology Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Her master's thesis focused on developing an interactive tangible robot-mediated game for long-term hospitalized teenagers to stimulate physical activity during hospital stays in collaboration with the Radboud UMC in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Furthermore, she worked as a researcher for the University of Oslo in the Multimodal Elderly Care Systems (MECS), where she conducted several user studies with senior adults on preference and user experience of congruent expressive approaching behavior of a social robot.
Partners
A collaboration partner is the social robotics lab from the University of Technology Eindhoven and the Division of Robotics, Perception, and Learning lab of KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm.