News & updates

 
 
 
 
 

New robots!

April 02, 2025

The first new robots for our research have arrived!

 

Presentations at MediaPsych 2025

April 01, 2025

Three papers from our robot-bond team have been accepted for presentation at the 2025 MediaPsych Conference!


“Human robot bonding” symposium

On Friday, March 21st, the ROBOT-BOND team hosted a symposium on Human-Robot Bonding, in collaboration with the Digital Media and Behavior Lab and the Network Institute of the VU. The event brought together 30 prominent scholars of the human-robot interaction field from universities across the Netherlands and Belgium, including Groningen, Eindhoven, Nijmegen, Utrecht, and Ghent .

Throughout the day, 10 expert speakers shared their latest research, sparking discussions about the nature of human-robot relationships and the evolving role of social robotics. Special focus was given to the impact of recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) on this field.

The symposium provided a unique opportunity to explore the multi-disciplinary aspects of bonding with social robots, setting the stage for future collaborations and breakthroughs in this rapidly advancing area of research. As a direct outcome of the productive discussions during the event, we have launched two new task forces focused on LLMs and measurements, which you can learn more about on the dedicated page (Task Forces)

The symposium programme can be found via the button below.


Workshop at IEEE RO-MAN 2025

March 19, 2025

Our proposal for a workshop on human-robot bonding has been accepted for IEEE RO-MAN 2025! This full-day workshop will be held in combination with three other workshops

 
 
 
 

Presentation at ICA 2025

A paper by Peggy van Minkelen titled “Investigating Relationship Formation and Common Ground in a Non-scripted Human-Robot Interaction Using a Collaborative Game-based Framework” was accepted for presentation at ICA 2025!

 

Coming to Etmaal

January 17, 2025

On February 3 and 4, 2025, the ROBOT-BOND team will attend the Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap (24 hours of Communication Science) in Brugge.

 

ROBOT-BOND has started!

January 1, 2025

On January 1, 2025, the ROBOT-BOND project officially began. The new team is excited to get started!