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Imagine a world where robots flawlessly detect everyone in a conversation group and also greet the newcomers. Described in a paper published in the March proceedings of the prestigious International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '22), Hooman Hedayati (PhD computer science '20) and Daniel Szafir, assistant professor of computer science at UNC Chapel Hill and former ATLAS faculty member, proposed a method to overcome situations when conversational group (F-formation) detection algorithms fail.

THING Lab researchers, led by recent PhD graduate, Ryo Suzuki, developed a swarm of shape-changing robots that move furniture around a room, opening up new haptic ideas for virtual reality.

ATLAS researchers and Ericsson Research project collaborators are exploring ways in which remote drumming experiences can be made more enjoyable despite the latency, including drumming with avatars.

HRI 2021, which will be held virtually March 8-11, is the 16th annual conference for basic and applied human-robot interaction research. Researchers from across the world present their best work to HRI to exchange ideas about the theory, technology, data and science furthering the state-of-the-art in human-robot interaction. The student design competition is open to everyone; the deadline is December 10.

Pufferbot is an aerial robot with an expandable protective structure that deploys to encircle the drone and prevent the drone's rotors from coming in contact with obstacles or people.

RoomShift is a haptic and dynamic environment that could be used to support a variety of virtual reality (VR) experiences.

TechXplore writes about PufferBot, an actuated, expandable structure that can be used to fabricate shape-changing aerial robots.

At a time when the field of human-computer interaction is becoming more important than ever, ATLAS researchers are making substantial contributions, contributing nine papers and two workshops to CHI '20.

Research from ATLAS Institute's IRON Lab involving utilizing augmented reality to gain information about a robot's intended path of motion was featured on the globally broadcast program, "Beyond Innovation." The program features the latest business and technology trends.

Research that helps robots understand gestures and the often vague nature of language will pave the way to mechanical beings taking on human tasks, from assembling children's toy castles on Christmas morning to caring for elderly relatives, says Dan Szafir, assistant professor at the ATLAS Institute and director of the IRON lab.