Rate My Professor Pamela Carreno-Medrano

Her research lies at the intersection of human-robot interaction, human-centred and embodied AI, and human-centred design, developing autonomous agents for short- and long-term human interactions. Specific interests include long-term adaptive human-robot interaction, aligning human-robot task representations, modeling non-goal-driven human behaviors, socially aware robot navigation, and socially assistive robotics for physical wellbeing. She leads projects such as Natural Interaction Strategies for Long-Term Robot Use for Elderly Care (Primary Chief Investigator, 2025-2028) and serves as Chief Investigator on ARC-funded initiatives like Human models for accelerated robot learning and human-robot interaction (2024-2027) and the ARC Training Centre for Optimal Ageing (2023-2028). Key publications encompass Contingent autonomy: Robotic encounters in an uncertain world (2026, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space); chapters in Experimental Methodology for Human–Robot Interaction (2025) on advanced statistical analysis methods, ethical HRI research frameworks, challenges in HRI experiments, and developing research questions and hypotheses; Joint estimation of expertise and reward preferences from human demonstrations; Use of Socially Assistive Robots in Physiotherapy: Scoping Review (2025); and Contextual Affordances for Safe Exploration in Robotic Scenarios (2024). Carreno-Medrano actively recruits Masters and PhD students in human-robot interaction, interactive robot learning, and human-behaviour modelling.